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Fables  Respecting  the  Popes 

OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES, 

\Nn 

PROPHECIES  AND  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT 

OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 

By  Dr.  DOLLINGER. 


Editf.i)  bv  Prof.  H.  B.  SMITH,  D.D..  of  Union  Theoioc.y  Sk.minaky. 


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UODD  & MEAD,  Publishers. 


^Lectures 


ON  THE 


Reunion  of  the  Churches 


By  JOHN  J.  I.  VON  BOLLINGER,  D.D.,  D.C  L., 

PROFESSOR  OF  ECCLESIASTICAL  HISTORY  IN  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  MUNICH, 
PROVOST  OF  THE  CHAPEL-ROYAL,  ETC.  ETC. 


TRANS  LA  TED  WITH  PREFACE 
By  henry  NUTCOMBE  OXENHAM,  M.A., 

LATE  SCHOLAR  OF  BALLIOL  COLLEGE,  OXFORD 

ingressus  est  in  ea  spirituSy  et  vixerunt ; steieruniq7te  super  pedes  suos  exerciius  grandis 
nimis  valde.  Et  dixit  ad  me  ; Fili  hominisy  ossa  hcec  universa  domus  Israel  esti 


DODD  AND  MEAD,  762  BROADWAY 

1872 


I 


. * ^ 


'^,f,  •■ 


•^0  the 

Rev.  henry  PARRY  LIDDON,  D.D,  D.C.L., 

IRELAND  PROFESSOR  OF  EXEGESIS  IN  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  OXFORD, 

CANON  OF  ST.  PAUL’S. 


My  dear  Liddon, 

You  will  readily  believe  that  there 
are  many  reasons  why  I should  gladly  seize  the  oppor- 
tunity of  dedicating  this  volume  to  you,  hut  it  will  bo 
sufficient  to  mention  two.  In  the  first  place,  it  has 
long  been  my  wish  to  put  on  record  some  acknowledg- 
ment of  a friendship  which  has  now  lasted  nearly 
twenty-five  years,  dating  from  my  first  undergraduate 
term  at  Oxford,  and  which  has  been  to  me  the  source 
of  so  much  happiness  and  so  many  blessings.  Yet 
what  could  I hope  to  offer  of  my  own  that  would  be  at 
aU  worthy  of  your  acceptance  ? Here,  however,  where 
for  the  most  part  the  language  alone  is  mine,  and  the 
thoughts  are  those  of  one  whom  we  have  both  learned 


VI 


Dedication. 


to  love  and  reverence,  is  something  which  I may  not 
unfitly  present  and  you  need  not  hesitate  to  accept. 
And  then,  again,  I would  ask  you  to  welcome  this 
Dedication,  as  a little  souvenir  of  the  pleasant  and 
profitable  hours  we  spent  together  last  year  at  IMunich 
in  the  company  of  the  illustrious  author. 

Wishing  you  every  blessing,  and  praying  that  you 
may  long  be  spared  with  health  and  strength  to  labour 
in  your  place  for  those  sacred  interests,  so  dear  to 
both  of  us,  to  which  Dr.  Dollinger  has  here  devoted 
the  ripe  wisdom  of  his  matures!  reflections, 

I am  ever,  my  dear  Liddon, 

Most  affectionately  yours, 

H.  K OXENHAM. 


Nativity  of  our  Lady,  1872. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Preface,  .......  ix 


LECTURE  I. 

Gener.al  Review  of  the  Religious  Condition  of  the 

World,  ......  1 


LECTURE  11. 

The  Duty  of  Christian  Nations  to  the  Heathen,  and 

its  Great  Hindrance,  ....  20 

LECTURE  III. 

Division  of  East  and  West  : Grounds  of  Hope,  . 32 

LECTURE  IV. 

The  German  Reformation,  ....  60 

LECTURE  V. 

Reaction  towards  Union  on  the  Continent  in  the 
Seventeenth  Century, 


84 


Contents. 


viii 


LECTURE  VI. 

The  English  Reformation,  its  Nature  and  Results,  . 


LECTURE  VII. 

Difficulties  and  Grounds  of  Hope, 


PACK 

io;i 


136 


Vi 


PREFA  CE. 

QIOME  apology  is  due  to  tlie  public  both  for  the 
delay  in  the  appearance  of  this  work,  and  for 
the  form  in  which  it  is  now  presented  to  them.  The 
Lectures  here  translated  were  delivered  by  Dr.  DoUinger 
in  the  Great  Hall  of  the  Museum  at  Munich,  on  Friday 
evenings,  during  the  months  of  February  and  March 
last;  but  it  was  his  intention  to  revise  and  enlarge 
them  considerably  before  publication,  and  he  had 
kindly  promised  to  send  me  the  sheets  for  translation, 
as  they  were  successively  printed  off.  But  meanwhile 
the  execution  of  this  design  has  been  delayed  beyond 
his  expectation  by  the  pressure  of  other  engagements, 
and  he  therefore  afterwards  offered  to  supply  me  with 
the  manuscript  of  the  Lectures,  as  originally  delivered, 
from  which  the  present  translation  has  been  made.  I 
shall,  of  course,  hereafter  avail  myself  of  the  complete 
work  on  its  appearance  in  Germany,  should  occasion 


ix 


X 


Preface. 


arise  for  doing  so.  It  is  right  to  add  that  none  of  the 
reports  of  the  course  which  appeared  in  the  principal 
German  newspapers,  and  were  wholly  or  partially 
reproduced  in  some  of  our  own,  were  published  with 
the  author’s  sanction,  and  that  he  disclaims  all 
responsibility  for  them.  The  actual  text  differs  in 
many  respects  from  the  report  in  the  Allgemeine 
Zcitung.  This  is  accordingly  the  first  appearance  of 
the  Lectures,  either  in  Germany  or  in  England,  in  an 
authentic  form.  Some  notes  and  references  the  author 
has  himself  added  to  the  manuscript.  For  all  hracTcetecl 
notes  I am  alone  responsible.  They  are  for  the  most 
part  simply  designed  to  provide  illustrative  details  of 
information,  which  may  not  always  be  familiar  to  the 
general  reader. 

The  momentous  question  which  Dr.  Dollinger  has 
here  undertaken  to  discuss,  and  to  which  indeed  he 
has  again  and  again  called  attention  in  several  of  his 
previous  works,  is  one  that  has  long  been  forcing  itself 
on  the  thoughts  of  serious  men  in  all  parts  of  our 
divided  Christendom.  Some  testimonies  to  the  wide- 
spread and  growing  sense  of  its  importance  have  been 
collected,  as  well  from  Catholic  as  from  Anglican  writers, 
in  a former  work  of  mine  on  the  subject,  and  the  evi- 


Preface. 


XI 


deuce  might  be  indefinitely  multiplied^  Within  the 
last  few  years  only,  to  such  names  as  Wiseman,  Ketteler, 
and  Dupanloup  have  been  added  those  of  men  differing 
as  widely  in  many  respects  both  from  them  and  from 
each  other,  as  Maret,  Gratry,  Perreyve,  IVIichaud, 
Strossmayer,  and  the  martyred  Darboy.  Nor  is  the 
feeling,  as  wiU  be  seen  from  these  Lectures,  confined  to 
one  side  only.  It  is  shared  also  by  Lutheran  as  well 
as  Anglican  divines,  though  probably  not  as  yet  to  the 
same  extent  by  the  former.^ 

^ We  cannot  wonder  that  it  should  be  so.  The  direct 
contradiction  to  the  will  and  purpose  of  our  divine 
Lord,  revealed  in  the  religious  divisions  of  His  professed 
disciples,  would  of  course  alone  be  a more  than  sufficient 
motive  for  making  every  exertion  to  put  an  end  to  a 
state  of  things  so  displeasing  to  Him.  But  over  and 
above  this,  the  overwhelming  practical  interest  of  the 
question  is  impressing,  I might  say  obtruding,  itself 


' See  Appendix  to  my  Letter  to  F.  Lockhart  on  Dr.  Puseifs  Eirenicon, 
2d  ed.,  Washboume,  1872. 

® See,  e.g.,  some  remarkable  letters  addressed  by  several  Protestant 
pastors  to  Bishop  Martin  of  Paderbom,  urging  him  to  use  his  influence  for 
the  removal  of  what  they  allege  to  be  the  two  chief  hindrances  to  a reunion 
of  the  separated  Churches,  viz.,  the  compulsory  celibacy  of  the  clergy  and 
the  withdrawal  of  the  chalice  from  the  people.  The  letters  are  given  in 
the  second  appendix  to  Friedrich’s  Tagebuch  wahrend  des  Vat.  Concils^ 
pp.  424  522'. 


Xll 


Preface. 


more  prominently  every  day  on  the  notice  even  of  the 
most  superficial  observers  of  the  existing  phenomena, 
whether  of  the  Christian  or  the  Heathen  world.  On 
the  latter  point  nothing  need  he  added  here  to  what  has 
been  so  fully  set  forth  by  the  lecturer.  The  single  fact 
that,  at  the  end  of  eighteen  centuries,  some  800,000,000 
of  our  fellow-men — considerably  over  two-thirds  of  the 
human  race — are  still  strangers  to  any  form  of  Chris- 
tianity, speaks  volumes.  And  it  is  not  the  less,  but 
the  more  significant,  when  we  call  to  mind  the  large 
and  generous  efforts  which  have  been  made  for  their 
conversion  during  the  last  three  centuries, — the  im- 
mense expenditure  of  English  gold  with  such  absurdly 
disproportionate  results,  and  the  heroic  labours  of 
Catholic  missionaries,  who  have  shed  their  blood  like 
water  on  almost  every  shore,  and  yet  have  gathered  in 
but  a precarious  harvest  of  souls,  counted  by  hundreds 
or  thousands,  when  the  millions  of  heathendom  should 
long  since  have  become  obedient  to  the  faith.  It  was 
not  thus  when  Apostles  preached,  when  Augustine,  or 
Boniface,  or  Columba  went  forth  to  win  whole  nations 
to  the  Gospel.  And  why  not  ? They  taught  a “ com- 
mon Christianity  ” in  a very  different  sense  from  that 
now  attached  to  the  phrase,  and  the  world,  beholding 


Preface.  xiii 

their  unity,  believed  in  Him  who  sent  them.  But  the 
rival  preachers  of  a score  of  jarring  creeds  the  world 
cannot  beKeve  in;  and  for  the  most  part  it  cuts  the 
knot  by  rejecting  all  alike.  We  were  warned  before- 
hand that  it  must  he  so. 

I will  hut  add  the  eloquent  testimony  of  Bishop 
jMaret  on  this  point : “ If,  after  eighteen  centuries, 
idolatry  prevails  over  the  greater  part  of  the  globe ; 
if  Mahometism  desolates  once  flourishing  Christian 
countries ; if  a thinly  disguised  atheism  ravages  even 
the  Christian  world, — 'doubt  not  that  one  of  the  most 
powerful  causes  of  so  many  moral  and  social  miseries, 
so  many  shameful  humiliations,  lies  in  the  many 
unhappy  internal  divisions  of  Christians,  which  con- 
stitute schism  and  heresy.  If  the  Eastern  Churches 
were  reunited  to  the  Mother  Church,  if  our  brethren, 
separated  from  unity  by  the  violent  revolutions  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  were  reunited  with  us,  what  a new 
power  of  transformation  and  victory  would  Christi- 
anity display  in  the  world,  combining  in  one  all  its 
living  forces,  all  the  elements  of  regenerated  progress, 
science,  and  civilisation.  Then  indeed  should  we  wit- 
ness the  reign  of  God  and  of  His  Christ  on  earth. 
Everything  which  can  hinder  the  drawing  together 


XIV 


Preface. 


again  of  hearts  and  minds,  and  the  restoration  of 
religious  unity,  should  he  regarded  as  the  greatest  of 
evils,  because  it  is  what  hinders  the  greatest  of  bless- 
ings.”^ 

And  if  we  turn  our  glance  on  the  Christian  world,  the 
portentous  results  of  disunion  stare  us  yet  more  visibly 
in  the  face.  Scepticism  manifests  its  presence  daily 
and  hourly  among  us  in  a thousand  open  or  insidious 
forms.  It  colours  our  literature,  it  controls  our  poKcy, 
it  mounts  our  pulpits,  it  aspires  to  restrain  or  to  for- 
mulate our  prayers.  And  how  do  the  champions  of 
orthodoxy  essay  to  meet  it  ? By  ingenious  arguments, 
which  perhaps  only  half  convince  themselves ; by 
stammering  appeals  to  an  undefined  authority;  or  by  the 
worn-out  sophisms  of  “the  Bible  and  the  Bible  only” 
theory,  as  though  the  world  could  stand  on  the  tortoise, 
and  the  tortoise  stand  upon  space.  But  this  will  not 
avail.  Protestantism,  as  a system  of  positive  belief,  is 
found  to  be  unequal  to  the  crisis.^  If  I refer  to  the 
independent  witness  of  a recent  writer  in  the  West- 

1 Du  Concile  Gerieral,  vol.  ii.  pp.  387,  8. 

2 It  is  a fact  abundantly  proved  by  statistics  that  religious  perplexity  is 
one  main  cause  of  the  large  increase  of  insanity  in  modern  times,  as  also 
that  suicide  is  more  common  in  Protestant  than  in  Catholic  countries. — 
See  Casper’s  Denhumirdigkeiten  zur  medicin.  Statistik,  quoted  in  Buckle’s 
History  of  Civilisation,  vol.  i.  p.  26. 


Preface. 


XV 


minster  Review,  it  is  not  for  any  novelty  in  his  argument 
— for  it  has  often  been  urged  before — still  less  from 
any  sympathy  with  his  tone,  even  where  I am  able  to 
agree  with  him  ; hut  simply  because  he  has  defined  the 
situation  from  the  infidel  point  of  view  with  edifying 
candour  and  precision.^ 

Catholicism,  he  begins  by  assuring  us,  is  destined  to 
outlive  Protestantism,  as  well  because  “ its  promises  are 
more  satisfactory  to  the  instincts  of  the  vidgar” — that 
is,  because  it  better  satisfies  the  religious  cravings  of 
the  human  soul — as  from  its ’resting  on  a more  philo- 
sophical basis.  He  is  reviewing  Dr.  Newman’s  recent 
reprint  of  the  85  th  of  the  Tracts  for  the  Times,  vindi- 
cating the  claims  of  historical  as  opposed  to  what  is 
sometimes  called  Bible  Christianity,  and  he  fully  admits 
the  force  of  the  argument.  He  thinks  it  certain  that 
“ at  the  date  of  the  publication  of  the  fourth  Gospel, 
or  very  shortly  afterwards,”  which  can  hardly  mean 
later  than  the  second  century,  the  teaching  of  the 
Church  was  distinctively  Catholic,  and  reminds  us  that 
the  earliest  authorities  cited  for  the  canon  of  Scripture 
are  equally  emphatic  in  asserting,  e.g.,  the  doctrines  of 
the  Eucharistic  sacrifice  and  prayer  for  the  dead.  He 

' West.  Rev.  for  July  1872  : Art.  “Difficulties  of  Protestantism.” 


XVI 


Preface. 


is  naturally  not  sanguine  as  to  the  future  spread  of 
Christianity,  and  refers  for  his  own  purposes  to  the 
comparative  failure,  which  was  noticed  just  now,  of 
modern  missionary  efforts.  But  he  is  quite  convinced 
that,  wherever  it  does  spread,  it  will  not  be  in  the  form 
of  Protestantism.  Indeed,  he  goes  so  far  as  to  express 
an  opinion  that,  “ speaking  broadly,  it  is  impossible 
now-a-days  to  convert  any  one  to”  a system,  which 
cannot  elicit  faith,  for  it  is  in  fact  simply  “ an  arrested 
development  of  free  thought,”  and  is  already  writhing 
uneasily  under  the  artificial  fetters  imposed  on  it  at  the 
Eeformation.  It  is  incapable  from  its  nature  of  forming 
a permanent  dwelling-place  for  the  mind,  but  has  done 
good  service  as  a temporary  resting-place,  “ which  has 
happily  sheltered  man  on  his  way  from  bondage  to 
freedom,  from  darkness  to  light,  from  theology  to  Truth.” 
In  other  words,  it  has  served  to  break,  and  thereby 
to  disguise,  the  fall  from  Christian  faith  into  naked 
infidelity.  The  reviewer  urges  in  conclusion,  what  is 
obvious,  that  the  final  issue  must  turn  on  the  admis- 
sion or  denial  of  the  supernatural  in  any  form  ; and 
he  might  have  added  that  premonitory  signs  are  already 
discernible  of  the  approach  of  the  contest,  if  it  is  not 
actually  begun.  That  the  contending  forces  will  be 


Preface. 


xvii 


eventually  driven  by  the  conditions  of  the  conflict  to 
range  themselves  in  two,  and  two  only,  camps,  under 
the  rival  banners  of  faith  or  of  unbelief,  there  cannot 
be  a doubt,  and  as  little  that  such  a crisis  would 
involve  “not  only  the  eclipse,  but  the  disappearance 
of  the  system  known  as  Protestantism,”  through  the 
absorption  of  its  positive  and  negative  elements  into 
the  opposite  systems  to  which  they  respectively  belong. 

There  are  two  reasons  just  now  for  insisting  on  this 
aspect  of  the  case,  and  which  have  led  me  to  dwell,  at 
greater  length  than  its  intrinsic  merits  would  require, 
on  the  article  in  the  W tstminst&r  Review.  In  the  first 
place,  it  is  well  that  religious  Protestants  should  bring 
themselves  to  understand  distinctly — and  I use  the 
term,  “ Protestant,”  for  all  who  rest  their  belief  on  the 
Protestant  principle  of  private  judgment,  as  distinct 
from  the  traditional  and  historical  basis  of  Catholic 
Christianity — on  how  insecure  a tenure  they  hold  those 
portions  of  revealed  truth  which  they  are  sincerely 
anxious  to  retain,  and  how  signal  must  be  their  dis- 
comfiture, if  they  elect  to  stand  alone  against  the 
advancing  forces  of  unbelief.^  It  should  be  borne  in 

^ A studiously  vague  and  general  assertion  of  the  supernatural  element 
in  religion  was  only  carried  by  a majority  of  61  to  46  last  June  in  the 
Synod  of  the  French  Protestant  Church,  after  a prolonged  and  stormj; 

h 


xviii  Preface. 

mind  that  Protestantism,  when  left  to  itself,  has  always 
betrayed  an  inherent  tendency  to  gravitate  towards 
Socinianism.  This  has  been  abundantly  illustrated  in 
the  Eeformed  Churches  of  Germany  and  Switzerland, 
while  a case  tried  before  the  English  law  courts  some 
forty  years  ago  brought  out  the  startling  fact,  that 
almost  the  entire  Presbyterian  body  in  this  country 
had  abandoned  the  fundamental  tenet  which  discrimi- 
nates Christianity  from  natural  religion.^ 

And  it  is  surely  not  a little  significant  in  this 
connexion  that,  in  the  vital  controversy  now  agitating 
the  Established  Church,  the  Evangelical  party,  whose 
theological  culture  has  never  been  their  strong  point, 
should  have  openly  and  somewhat  eagerly  joined  the 
ugly  rush  against  that  majestic  and  venerable  formu- 
lary which  most  effectively  guards  the  central  verity  of 
revelation.  The  circumstance  is  the  more  remarkable, 
because  the  Athanasian  Creed  touches  on  no  single 
doctrine  which  they  do  not,  equally  with  tlieir  High 
Church  and  Eitualist  rivals,  profess  to  believe.  And 
it  would  be  the  merest  excess,  not  of  charity,  but  of 
unreason,  to  affect  to  doubt  that,  with  the  great  majo- 

(iehate  of  several  days’  duration.  It  contains  no  distinct  assertion  of  the 
divinity  of  Christ. 

J The  case  of  Lady  Hewley’s  Charity,  in  1832. 


Preface. 


XIX 


rity  of  the  assailing  party,  the  real  ground  of  antagonism 
lies  in  a disbelief,  more  or  less  consciously  acknowledged, 
either  of  some  of  the  doctrinal  statements  of  the  Creed, 
or  of  its  peremptory  assertion  of  a principle,  borne  out 
by  every  line  of  the  New  Testament,  that  men  will  be 
held  responsible  for  their  acceptance  of  God’s  revelation 
no  less  than  for  their  obedience  to  His  moral  law.^ 
Scarcely  less  suggestive  than  the  Evangelical  atti- 
tude towards  the  Athanasian  Creed,  is  the  line  taken 
by  (I  fear)  the  great  body  of  English  Dissenters  on  the 
Education  question,  which  inevitably  reminds  one  of 
the  advice  of  the  false  mother  in  Solomon’s  judgment. 
Better  that  all  our  children  should  be  brought  up  in  an 
“ unsectarian  ” religion — that  is,  without  any  faith  at 
all — than  that  any  of  them  should  be  taught  the 
Apostles’  Creed,  which  happens  to  be  a distinctive 
formulary  of  two,  not  inconsiderable,  Christian  “ de- 
nominations.”^ Such  a system  is  a far  more  serious 

’ It  is  worth  remarking  that  those  Protestant  communities  which  have 
dropped  the  Athanasian  Creed  have,  as  a rule,  either  retained  a very 
faltering  hold  on  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  or  abandoned  it 
altogether.  The  American  Episcopal  Church  cannot  fairly  be  quoted  as 
an  exception,  for — not  to  insist  on  the  necessarily  conservative  influence 
of  a hierarchy — it  is  not  yet  a century  old,  and  there  is  understood  to  be 
a growing  desire  among  its  more  orthodox  members  for  the  restoration 
of  what  was  hastily  cast  away  in  an  age  which,  to  say  the  least,  gave  a 
peculiar  prominence  to  the  negative  side  of  its  beliefs. 

2 Since  the  above  passage  was  written,  it  has  received  a striking  con- 


XX 


Preface. 


evil,  botli  in  theory  and  practice,  than  pure  secularism, 
for  it  not  only  omits  all  genuine  religious  teaching, 
hut  supplants  it  by  a spurious  substitute.  And  there  is 
a further  reason  for  noticing  the  matter  here,  because 
“ the  religious  difficulty  ” of  education,  of  which  we 
have  heard  so  much  during  the  last  few  years,  is 
notoriously  and  solely  due  to  the  divided  state  of 
Christendom.  But  for  that,  we  should  never  have 
heard  of  the  strange  undertaking  to  construct,  what 
one  of  the  Anglican  Bishops  the  other  day  justly 
termed  “ a new  religion,”  viz.,  the  theological  residuum 
extracted  by  eliminating  whatever  is  distinctive  in 
the  teaching  of  any  of  the  hundred  or  so  of,  I was 


firmation  in  the  report  of  a debate  on  the  subject  in  the  Wesleyan  Con- 
ference, extending  over  two  days  and  ending  in  a drawn  battle  (see  Times 
of  August  14  and  15).  The  Wesleyans  have  usually  been  regarded  as 
denominationalists,  but  with  many  of  them  the  desire  for  a primlegimn 
against  Anglican  and  Roman  Catholic  schools  appears  to  have  overpowered 
every  other  feeling.  Those  who  supported  the  resolution  against  denomi- 
uational  education  dwelt  avowedly,  and  almost  exclusively,  on  the  argu- 
ment that  it  enabled  “ Papists  ” and  Anglicans  to  train  their  children  in 
their  own  faith.  As  the  mover  of  the  resolution  (Rev.  W.  Arthur)  put  it, 
“ Their  choice  lay  between  Popery  and  the  Bible.”  It  is  right  to  say  that 
several  ministers  spoke  on  the  other  side,  one  of  whom  (Rev.  E.  E.  Jenkins), 
honestly  avowed  that  “he  would  rather  have  the  Bible  explained  to  a 
child  of  his  in  a Ritualist  or  Broad  Church  school  than  have  it  simply  read 
in  a cold  and  lifeless  manner  in  a school  where  no  explanation  was  given. 
He  would  rather  be  a Papist  than  an  Atheist  or  a Unitarian.”  This  is 
the  language  both  of  Christianity  and  of  common  sense ; if  the  Bible  is 
to  be  read  in  school  without  note  or  comment,  it  had  much  better  be  read 
in  Hebrew. 


Preface. 


XXI 


going  to  say,  Christian  sects  in  the  country.^  But, 
in  presence  of  Jews  and  Secularists,  it  may  well  be 
questioned  if  the  existence  of  a personal  God  must 
not  be  relegated  to  the  forbidden  category  of  “ denomi- 
national” beliefs;  about  the  divinity  of  Christ  there 
is  confessedly  no  question  at  all.  And  the  education 
difficulty  has  its  political  as  well  as  its  religious  side. 
If  a Eoman  Emperor  wished  that  his  people  had  but 
one  neck,  a modern  statesman  might  with  better  reason 
wish,  on  the  lowest  gTound,  that  they  had  but  one 
rebgion. 

It  has,  indeed,  been  suggested  that  what  is  really 
wanted,  and  is  alone  practicable,  is  “ a better  manage- 
ment of  our  differences.”  And  it  is  well,  no  doubt,  to 
cultivate  friendly  relations  with  those  from  whom  we 
differ,  so  far  as  it  can  be  done  without  any  compromise 
of  principle.  A better  understanding  between  the 
members  of  divided  communions  is  the  first  step,  as 

^ Bishop  Magee,  whose  speech  is  referred  to  in  the  text,  speaks  of 
“ 126  religious  fractions  of  the  country.” — See  Gwirdian  for  July  24, 
1872.  It  is  gratifying  to  learn  that  this  hopeful  experiment  is  actually 
about  to  he  tried  in  Japan,  where  it  is  announced  that  “the  Government 
has  decided  on  the  promulgation  of  a new  form  of  religio^i,  after  careful 
consultation  with  the  most  noted  exponents  of  each  sect,  and  all  will  he 
compelled  to  confo'rm  thereto.  The  new  religion  will  be  enlightened, 
simple,  and  adapted  to  common  sense,  and  is  likely  to  meet  the  approval  of 
all  classes.”  Perhaps  it  may  ; the  Japanese  are  said  to  be  about  the  most 
irreligious  and  immoral  people  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 


XXI 1 


Preface. 


the  lecturer  has  pointed  out,  towards  the  desired 
reconciliation ; the  first,  but  not  the  last.  To  coalesce 
on  a basis  of  mutual  disagreement, 

“ Thou,  for  my  sake,  at  Alla’s  shrine, 

And  I at  any  god’s,  for  thine,” 

is  one  thing ; it  is  quite  another  to  meet  in  the  unity 
of  a common  faith.  The  rule  of  “ liberty  in  what  is 
doubtful,  and  charity  in  all  things  ” is  most  excellent, 
as  far  as  it  goes,  but  it  will  secure  no  inward  or  lasting 
harmony  between  those  who  are  at  variance  on  the 
essential  truths  of  revelation.  Had  the  early  Church 
been  united,  in  its  stand  against  the  Pagan  empire,  on 
the  principle  of  agreeing  to  diifer,  the  ten  persecutions 
would  have  been  reduced  by  nine,  for  there  would  have 
been  nobody  left  to  persecute.  It  is  not  without 
reason,  accordingly,  that  Dr.  Dollinger  lays  down,  as  an 
indispensable  condition  of  all  negotiations  for  reunion, 
the  acceptance  not  only  of  Holy  Scripture,  but  also 
of  the  three  oecumenical  Creeds,  interpreted  by  the 
teaching  of  the  ancient  Church,  before  East  and  West 
were  separated.  This  was  in  fact  the  gvound  taken, 
and  with  perfect  success  for  the  moment,  at  the  Council 
of  Florence,  though  insincerity  on  both  sides,  and  lust 
of  dominion  on  one,  reduced  the  agreement  to  a jicu^on  ■ 


Preface.  xxiii 

and  we  have  a more  permanent  record  of  the  positive 
results  of  such  an  appeal  in  the  independent  hut 
concurrent  witness  of  the  dogmatic  canons  of  Trent 
and  the  “ Orthodox  Confession  of  Faith,”  sanctioned 
in  1672  by  the  Eastern  Synod  of  Bethlehem.^ 

But  it  would  he  a grievous  mistake  to  suppose  that 
Protestants  alone  are  interested  in  the  reunion  of 
Christendom,  as  neither  are  they  alone  responsible  for 
its  divisions.  There  are  few  quarrels,  public  or  private, 
in  which  the  fault  lies  wholly  on  one  side,  and  the 
Eeformation  is  certainly  not  one  of  them.  The  great 
ecclesiastical  revolution  which  dates  from  the  ninth 
century,  as  it  was  the  immediate  occasion  of  the  sepa- 
ration of  East  and  West,  became  also  the  remote  cause 
of  the  schism  of  the  sixteenth  century,  by  giving  the  first 
impulse  to  the  new  administrative  system,  which  had  by 
that  time  attained  such  enormous  dimensions.  And  there 
was  unfortunately  much  on  the  Catholic  side  at  that 


1 It  is  admitted  by  theologians,  on  both  sides,  that  the  continued 
quarrel  between  the  Latin  and  Greek  Churches  still  hinges  on  the  dispute 
about  the  primacy,  which  was  its  source  ; and  that  if  this  were  amicably 
settled,  the  remaining  differences,  including  the  question  of  the  Filioque, 
would  not  be  difficult  of  adjustment.  See  on  this  point  the  testimony  of  a 
recent  ultramontane  writer.  Father  Tondini,  who  quotes  a dissertation  of 
the  learned  Belgian  Jesuit,  De  Buck,  Pope  of  Rome,  and  Popes  of  the 
Oriental  Church,  pp.  4,  5 ; and  cf.  the  speech  of  the  Russian  deputy.  Dr. 
Ossinin,  at  the  Munich  Congress  last  year. 


xxiv  Preface. 

critical  epocli  to  deepen  and  embitter  the  antagonism 
wliich  had  long  been  growing  up,  and  had  left  its  mark  on 
the  Councils,  as  well  as  on  the  literature  and  religious 
life,  of  the  fifteenth  century.  To  speak  of  Tetzel’s 
indulgence-box  as  the  cause  of  the  Eeformation,  is  to 
confound  sign  with  substance,  but  it  was  one  of  many 
outward  indications  of  a state  of  things  sure  sooner  or 
later  to  produce  an  explosion,  if  it  was  not  remedied. 
And  the  remedy  of  the  counter-reformation,  besides 
being  partial,  came  too  late.  Had  all  Popes  of  that 
age  been  like-minded  with  Adrian  vi.,  and  all  Cardinals 
such  as  Contarini  and  Sadolet,  the  religious  history  of 
the  last  three  centuries  might  have  been  a very  different 
one ; and  the  intolerant  spirit  which  helped  to  create 
the  breach  has  lived  on  to  keep  it  open  and  widen  it. 
We  have  all,  Catholics  and  Protestants  alike,  been  far 
too  ready  to  hug  ourselves  in  self-complacent  isolation, 
and  too  little  disposed,  in  the  words  of  “ the  profoi;nd 
and  pious  Mohler,”  to  “ stretch  a friendly  hand  to 
one  another,  and  exclaim,  in  the  consciousness  of  a 
common  guilt,  ‘ We  all  have  erred ; the  Church  alone 
cannot  err.  We  all  have  sinned ; the  Church  alone  is 
spotless.’  This  oipm  confession  of  guilt  on  both  sides,” 
adds  the  author,  “ will  be  followed  by  the  festival  of 


Preface. 


XXV 


reconciliation.”  ^ And  that  open  confession,  vhich  Moliler 
desiderated  forty  years  ago,  is  a desideratum  still.  If 
Protestants  are  narro\r  and  unreasonable,  and  refuse,  as 
they  often  do,  to  look  an  inch  beyond  the  hare  letter 
of  the  Bible,  as  interpreted  by  what  they  caU  their 
private  judgment,  hut  what  is  in  reality  a mere  floating 
Protestant  tradition.  Catholics,  on  the  other  hand,  are 
apt  to  content  themselves  with  pointing  proudly,  almost 
scornfully,  to  the  unbroken  unity  of  the  Church,  and 
telling  outsiders  to  take  care  of  themselves ; the  loss 
is  theirs  alone. 

The  statement  is  hardly  accurate  in  the  letter,  for 
whenever  there  has  been  any  serious  thought  of  recon- 
ciling East  and  West,  the  Popes  themselves  have  always 
dealt  -svith  the  Easterns  as  constituting  a portion  of 
the  Church,  not  as  mere  outsiders.  But  I do  not  care 
to  wrangle  over  niceties  of  terminology.  However  we 
interpret  the  unity  of  the  Church,  the  broad  fact  re- 
mains that  Christendom  is  divided.  To‘  the  outward 
eye,  and  as  a witness  to  mankind,  the  Church  is  no 
longer  one,  as  it  was  in  the  early  ages,  as  it  was  in 
Western  Europe  up  to  the  sixteenth  century.  Then, 

1 Mohler’s  Symbolism,  Eng.  Trans.,  vol.  ii.  p.  32,  first  published  in 
1832.  The  passage  is  quoted  in  Cardinal  Wiseman’s  Letter  to  Lord 
Shrewsbury. 


XXVI 


Preface. 


like  Him  who  sent  her,  the  divine  messenger  spoke 
with  authority,  for  her  credentials  were  visibly  written 
on  her  regal  brow  : incessu  patuit  dea.  There  was 
one  unfailing  answer  to  doubts  and  difficulties,  which 
was  felt  to  be  practically  conclusive ; and  though  no 
one  could  be  better  able  than  St.  Augustine  to  grapple 
with  intellectual  error,  his  most  effective  argument  lay 
in  an  appeal  to  fact ; Securus  judicat  orhis  terrarum. 
It  is  not  so  now,  when  the  orhis  terrarum  is  divided, 
and  tlie  Church’s  witness  is  discredited  by  the 
discordant  clamours  of  hostile  sects.  Protestant 
countries  have  no  monopoly  of  scepticism.  It  is 
as  rife,  at  the  very  least,  in  Prance  and  Italy  as  in 
England.  Only  the  other  day  a popular  French 
newspaper  announced  that  “ Christianity  has  fatally 
disorganized  civilisation,  and  its  advent  may  be  defined 
as  ‘ the  first  invasion  of  the  barbarians.’  How,  all 
tlie  merit  of  the  barbarians  was  to  arrive  at  the 
point  where  there  should  be  no  more  barbarians  : in 
the  same  way  the  advantage  of  Christianity  is  to  arrive 
at  the  point  where  there  will  be  neither  Pagans  nor 
Christians,  but  freethinkers,  definitely  liberated  from 
every  God.”  ^ Why  has  the  French  Church,  with  her 
1 Republique  Frangaise.  quoted  in  the  Times  of  July  15,  1872. 


Preface. 


xxvii 


vast  machinery,  her  eloquent  preachers,  her  devoted 
priesthood,  so  little  hold  on  the  male  intellect  of  the 
country,  that  public  opinion  is  more  than  tolerant  of 
Atheism  ? Several  answers  might  he  given,  and 
indeed  have  been  given,  in  detail  by  those  best 
qualified  to  speak  ; ^ hut  they  will  be  found  ultimately 
to  resolve  themselves  into  that  one  radical  evil,  which 
is  the  fruitful  source  of  such  manifold  corruption  and 
disease,  the  disunion  of  Christendom.  To  quote  the 
testimony  of  one  of  the  ablest  of  our  living  writers, 
who  cannot  certainly  be  accused  of  excessive  eccle- 
siastical sympathies : “ As  things  are,  rationalism 

and  fatalistic  reveries  may  be  laboriously  confuted, 
but  amidst  the  energies  and  aspirations  of  a regenerated 
Christendom  they  would  spontaneously  pass  away.”  ^ 
The  question  before  us  then  is  one  which,  apart  from 
all  motives  of  charity  for  others,  Catholics,  for  their 
own  sakes,  cannot  afford  to  ignore.  All  sections  of  our 
distracted  Christendom,  each  in  its  own  way,  are 

1 See,  e.g.  a remarkable  passage  at  the  close  of  Father  Gratry’s  Second 
Letter  to  Mgr.  Dechamps  (pp.  49,  50),  on  “ the  school  of  error  ” ■within 
the  Church,  which  is  the  great  hindrance  to  her  progress. 

^ Goldwin  Smith’s  Zec^ares  on  the  Study  of  History,  p.  181.  The  writer 
had  just  said,  “ The  reunion  of  Christendom  is  likely  at  last  to  become 
a practical  aim.  Probably  it  would  be  a greater  service  to  humanity, 
on  philosophical  as  well  as  religious  grounds,  to  contribute  the  smallest 
unit  towards  this  consummation,  than  to  construct  the  most  perfect 
demonstration  of  the  free  personality  of  man.” 


xxviii  Preface. 

suffering  tlie  penalty  of  a common  sin,  and  till  this 
is  frankly  acknowledged  on  all  sides  there  can  he  no 
hope  of  reconciliation.  I have  said  that  an  union  on 
the  basis  of  mutual  disagreement  wmuld  he  at  once 
useless  and  impossible,  but  it  is  no  less  unreal  to 
propose  an  unconditional  surrender.  He  who  wills 
the  end  must  will  the  means,  and  those  who  adopt  this 
tone  tow'ards  their  separated  brethren  cannot  be  credited 
with  any  sincere  desire  for  that  peace  which — let  us 
remember — is  promised  hominibns  bonce  voluntatis.  In 
fact,  as  Dr  Dollinger  has  pointed  out,  there  is  no  greater 
hindrance  to  reunion  than  the  line  taken  on  the  subject 
by  a powerful  party  in  the  Church,  which  found 
singularly  clear  and  forcible  expression  some  years  ago 
in  a characteristic  pronouncement  of  the  Dublin  Revie^o 
against  an  eirenic  publication,  then  recently  issued  by 
a devout  and  learned  Catholic  layman.  “ The  Church 
apostolic,  undivided,  and  universal,”  rejoined  his  critic, 
“ stands  alone  among  other  religious  communities,  with 
everything  to  bestow,  nothing  to  receive.”  She  admits 
no  right  to  parley  with  her,  “ her  call,  whether  to 
individuals  or  communities,  is  a summons  not  to  treat 
but  to  surrender.  She  sits  as  judge  in  her  own 
controversy,  and  the  only  plea  she  admits  is  a Con- 


Preface. 


XXIX 


fiteor,  the  only  prayer  she  listens  to  a Miserere.”  How 
far  such  language  breathes  the  true  spirit  of  the  Church 
or  of  the  Ch«rch’s  Lord,  how  far  it  is  consistent  with 
the  recorded  utterances  of  some  of  the  wisest  of  her 
pontiffs  and  the  holiest  of  her  Saints,  or  with  the 
precedents  of  former  negotiations  with  external  bodies, 
I do  not  stay  to  examine  here.^  Those  who  are  familiar 
with  the  facts  will  have  no  difficulty  in  answering  the 
question  for  themselves.  It  is  enough  for  my  present 
purpose  to  observe  that  such  is  unhappily  the  habitual 
language,  and  represents  the  habitual  policy,  of  what 
Dr.  Newman  has  characterized  as  an  “ aggressive, 
insolent  faction,”  but  which  just  now  is  tyrannously 
dominant  in  the  Church. 

Let  me  give  but  one  example  of  this.  Ten  years 
ago,  Ketteler,  Bishop  of  Mayence,  one  of  the  most 
influential  of  the  German  episcopate,  published  a 
work  under  the  title  of  Liberty,  Authority,  and  the 
Church^  which  contained  the  most  frank  and  full 
confession  of  the  terrible  evils  resrdting  both  from 
the  earlier  rupture  between  East  and  West,  and  from 
“ the  no  less  deplorable  division  of  the  Catholic  Church 

* Some  remarks  on  this  point  will  be  found  in  my  “ Postscript  on  Catholic 
Unity,”  in  Essays  on  the  Reunion  of  Christendom.  Hayes. 

* Freiheit,  Autoritdt  und  Kirche,  Mainz,  1862. 


XXX 


Preface. 


in  the  West,  which  for  three  centuries  has  preyed  on 
our  vitals,  and  is  the  source  of  such  deadly  mischief” 
He  urges  and  conjures  all  sincere  Christians  “ to  pray 
for  the  reunion  of  all  the  Christian  confessions,”  and 
“ would  still  more  rejoice  to  see  members  of  different 
Christian  communities  deliberate  together  for  the  recital 
of  some  common  prayer,” — exactly,  by  the  way,  what  was 
done  in  England  fifteen  years  ago,  and  has  since  been 
condemned  by  the  Eoman  Inquisition.^  The  Bishop 
goes  on  to  say  that  nearly  all  the  charges  brought  against 
the  Church  spring  out  of  misapprehensions,  “ and  these 
almost  always  have  their  origin  in  the  imperfections  and 
infirmities  of  members  of  the  Church;”  and  then  he 
pointedly  insists,  for  the  information  of  Protestants, 
that  the  infallibility  of  the  Church  “ resides  only  in  the 
whole  body  of  the  Episcopate  united  to  the  successor 
of  St.  Peter,  and  extends  only  to  trnths  proclaimed  by 
Christ.”^  The  work  also  contained  emphatic  assertions 
of  the  rights  of  conscience  and  the  absolute  unlawful- 
ness of  aU  religious  coercion.  It  naturally  excited 
considerable  attention  and  very  general  sympathy  in 

’ The  A.  P.  U.  C.  was  founded  on  the  feast  of  the  Nativity  of  our  Lady, 
1857,  including  clergy  and  laity  of  the  English  and  Roman  Catholic 
Churches  among  its  first  members. 

^ The  passage  is  cited  at  length  in  my  Letter  to  F.  Lockhart,  pp.  107- 
110. 


Preface. 


XXXI 


Germany,  and  was  as  naturally  most  unacceptable  to 
the  party  whose  principles  it  so  directly  contravened, 
and  who  have  the  ear  of  Eome.  On  account  of  the 
author’s  position  it  was  not  put  on  the  Index,  hut  it 
was  well  understood  by  himself  as  well  as  by  others  to 
he  implicitly  condemned  in  the  Syllabus,^  and,  which 
is  the  main  point.  Bishop  Ketteler  has  found  it  discreet 
to  adopt  an  entirely  different  line  on  religious  questions 
since  then. 

So  much  for  the  tyrannous  influence  of  the  dominant 
faction.  That  their  attitude  towards  external  com- 
munions, which  recognises  nothing  but  a “ Confitcor 
and  a Miserere,”  must  prove,  as  it  always  has  proved, 
absolutely  fatal,  so  far  as  it  extends,  to  the  very  idea  of 
conciliation,  is  obvious  on  the  face  of  it,  and  must  be 
perfectly  obvious  to  themselves.  Not  such  was  the 
attitude  or  the  spirit  of  Leander,  Sancta  Clara,  and 
Panzani,  of  Bossuet  or  Spinola,  of  Adrian  vi..  Urban  viii.. 
Innocent  xi.,  Clement  xiv. ; and  only  by  proceeding  in 
a spirit  the  very  opposite  of  this  can  the  wounds  of 
Christendom  be  healed.  There  have  been  many  on  all 

’ He  attempted  indeed  in  a subsequent  pamphlet,  Deutschland  nach  dem 
Kriege  (1867),  to  explain  away  the  force  of  the  implied  censure  by  the 
strange  hypothesis,  that  the  articles  of  the  Syllabus  did  not  contain  a 
general  principle,  but  only  applied  to  particular  countries  ! 


Preface. 


xxxii 

sides,  Catholics,  Anglicans,  Lutherans,  in  former  days 
as  now,  who  have  laboured  and  longed  for  that  blessed 
consummation,  and  have  not  lived  to  see  it ; some,  like 
Spinola  and  Leibnitz,  in  one  generation,  Du  Pin  and 
Wake  in  another,  whose  names  are  indehbly  associated 
with  the  sacred  cause.  And  in  almost  every  case  the 
fairest  hopes  have  been  wrecked,  not  on  a religious,  hut 
a political  difficulty,  as  seems  only  too  likely  to  he  the 
case  with  the  present  unionistic  movement  in  the  East, 
to  which  Dr  Dollinger  has  referred.  What  the  good 
Bishop  Doyle  said  of  one  such  attempt  is  more  or  less 
true  of  all  or  nearly  all : “ its  failure  was  owing  more  to 
Princes  than  to  Priests,  more  to  State  policy  than  to  a 
difference  of  belief.”  How  true  are  the  concluding 
words  of  the  same  letter  : “ They  are  pride  and  points 
of  honour  which  keep  us  divided  on  many  subjects, 
not  a love  of  Christian  humility,  charity,  and  truth  ! ” ^ 
And  there  are  many  more,  of  every  chme  and  age, 
in  remote  English  villages,  in  the  seclusion  of  foreign 
convents,  in  the  privacy  of  domestic  life,  before 
gleaming  altars,  on  lingering  death-beds,  who  have 
watched,  and  toiled,  and  prayed  for  the  dawn  of  that 

1 Letter  to  Lord  Eipon  (1824),  published  in  Fitzpatrick’s  Life,  Times, 
and  Correspondence  of  Dr.  Doyle,  pp.  421  sg£.,  and  in  Union  Review, 
vol.  i.  pp.  12  sqq. 


Preface. 


XXXlll 


second  Pentecost,  who  are  praying  for  it  still  in  the 
brightness  of  the  everlastiog  sunshine,  whose  names  we 
know  not,  and  shall  never  know  on  earth,  over  whose 
forgotten  graves  their  guardian  angels  whisper  that 
most  musical  of  all  the  Beatitudes,  Beati  pacifici, 
quoniam  filii  Dei  vocahuntur.  There  are  many  yet 
among  us  who  are  striving  and  praying  for  it  now.  And 
besides  all  these  there  is  a vast  multitude  of  interces- 
sors, whom  no  man  can  number,  of  every  kindred, 
tribe,  and  tongue,  sunflushed  with  the  glory  of  the 
Uncreated  Vision,  and  gazing  on  the  pure  reflection  of 
unsullied  truth  that  is  mirrored  for  ever  and  for  ever 
on  the  waveless  surface  of  the  crystal  sea,  whose  sight 
is  purged  from  all  earthly  film  and  their  souls  from 
taint  of  human  passion,  who  cease  not  day  and  night 
to  cry  continually,  “ How  long,  0 Lord,  how  long  ? ” 
And  we,  too,  if  we  really  cared  about  the  matter, 
should  make  it  a subject  of  definite  contemplation, 
definite  action,  definite,  rmited,  persevering,  pertina- 
cious prayer.  We  shordd,  in  the  startling  language  of 
Scripture,  “ weary  ” the  Supreme  Judge  with  our  impor- 
tunities;^ we  shordd  interest  all  the  glorified  host  in 

1 The  original  word  (in  Luke  iviii.  6),  vvaimafy  ( Vvlg.  “ sugillet  ”)  is  far 
stronger,  and  will  hardly  indeed  hear  literal  translation.  A more  tre- 


C 


XXXIV 


Preface. 


our  supplications  to  the  Most  High.  Omnes  Sancti  et 
Sanctce  Dei,  intercedite  pro  nobis  ! 

And  to  all  who,  in  whatever  communion,  and  under 
whatever  form,  worship  in  sincerity  our  common  Lord, 
I would  say.  Do  not  put  from  you  the  suggestion  as 
unpractical,  or  trivial,  or  inopportune,  as  a morbid 
craving  for  the  satisfaction  of  an  ideal  want.  A 
craving  which  is  rooted  in  the  deepest  instincts  of  our 
moral  nature,  and  is  strengthened  by  menacing  pheno- 
mena in  the  present  condition  of  society,  whose 
accumulated  weight  presses  more  heavily  each  day  on 
the  intellect  and  conscience,  is  no  mere  sickly  dream ; 
and  a divine  ideal  can  never  he  impossible  of  attain- 
ment. If  we  have  come  to  look  on  religious  disunion 
as  a chronic  and  tolerable  evil,  or  even — and  there  are 
some  who  seem  so  to  view  it — as  a positive  advantage, 
that  is  only  because  long  use  has  inured  us  to  a state 
of  things  which  ought  to  be  intolerable  to  Christians, 
as  it  has  long  been  the  palmary  argument  and  impreg- 
nable stronghold  of  the  mocking  enemies  of  Christ. 
“ Go  ye,  make  disciples  of  all  nations,  baptizing  them,” 
was  the  original  commission  of  the  Church,  and  now,  at 
the  end  of  eighteen  centuries  of  missionary  enterprise, 

mendous  assertion  of  the  duty  and  efficacy  of  prayer  it  would  be  impossi- 
ble to  conceive. 


Preface. 


XXXV 


and  when  every  heathen  land  has  been  incarnadined 
in  martyr-blood,  three-fourths  of  mankind  are  unbap- 
tized ! “ That  they  may  all  be  one,  even  as  We  are 

One,  that  the  world  may  believe  that  Thou  hast  sent 
Me,”  was  the  Eedeemer’s  dying  intercession  for  His 
followers ; and  now,  in  this  nineteenth  century  since 
His  Crucifixion,  there  are  more  Christians  sects  in 
England  alone  than  there  were  believers  in  the  Upper 
Eoom  at  Jerusalem  after  the  Ascension  ! And  what  is 
the  upshot  ? Simply  this,  that  every  shred  of  the  revela- 
tion He  committed  to  His  Church  is  openly  disputed 
by  those  who  profess  to  be  His  disciples,  while  the 
great  mass  of  the  poor,  to  whom  especially  the  Gospel 
was  to  be  preached,  are  left  to  Eve  the  life  and  die 
the  death  of  heathen  in  a nominally  Christian  land, 
because  those  who  should  have  taught  them  His  word 
and  ministered  His  sacraments  have  wasted  their 
energies,  and  lost  half  their  faith  and  all  their  authority, 
in  perpetual  bickerings  with  one  another  as  to  what 
that  word  and  those  sacraments  are.  Truly,  if  Chris- 
tianity be  a divine  revelation,  and  the  Christian  Church 
is  to  be  its  teacher,  the  religious  outcome  of  the  last 
three  centuries  of  division  is  a spectacle  to  make 
infidels  triumph  and  angels  weep. 


XXXVl 


Preface. 


But  anyhow  the  case  is  hopeless,  and  it  will  be  our 
wisdom  to  acquiesce  quietly  in  the  inevitable  : reunion 
is  an  idle  dream.  Why  ? Simply  because  vje  choose  to 
make  it  so.  There  is  a story  of  a farmer  in  a country 
parish,  who  was  consulted  by  the  rector,  after  a 
dry  season,  as  to  whether  he  should  use  the  prayer 
for  rain.  “ Well,  sir,”  was  the  reply,  “ there  is  no  use 
in  your  praying  for  rain  while  the  wind  continues  in 
the  north.”  We  have  acted  for  three  centuries  and 
more  in  the  spirit  of  that  pious  and  intelligent  rustic, 
and  during  aU  that  period  the  theological  wind  has 
set  very  steadily  from  the  north.  As  long  as  we 
continue  to  emulate  his  example,  we  have  only  ourselves 
to  thank  if  it  should  blow  from  the  same  quarter  for 
the  next  three  centuries.  We  have  not,  because  we 
ask  not ; we  ask,  and  have  not,  because  we  ask  amiss. 
Too  many  of  us  do  not  ask  at  all.  Like  the  gods  of 
Epicurus,  “ they  lie  beside  their  nectar,”  and  regard 
the  religious  condition  of  the  world,  if  they  ever 
think  about  it,  much  as  the  deity  of  a certain  school 
of  modern  thinkers  is  supposed  to  contemplate,  if  he 
ever  does  contemplate,  the  universe  he  created,  if 
indeed  he  did  create  it,  — with  an  otiose  if  not 
cynical  detachment.  Eeunion,  they  say,  would  be  a 


P^'eface. 


xxxvii 


miracle,  and  to  pray  for  miracles  is  idle,  if  not 
presumptuous.  And  many,  who  would  shrink  from 
the  virtual  atheism  of  such  an  avowal,  are  unreal 
when  they  . pray  for  unity,  because  their  normal 
standard  of  conduct  and  opinion  is  in  direct  contra- 
diction with  their  prayers  ; out  of  the  same  mouth 
proceeds  blessing  and  cursing.  If  there  is  truth  in 
the  proverb,  Qiii  laborat  oral,  if  it  is  unreal  to  ask  for 
what  we  will  make  no  efforts  to  attain,  still  less  can 
we  expect  our  petitions  to  be  heard,  if  we  do  all  in 
our  power  to  thwart  them.  While  we  habitually  feel 
and  act  on  the  tacit  assumption  that  our  divisions 
are  irreconcileable,  that  all  the  right  is  on  one 
side,  and  the  sole  legitimate  object  of  discussion  is 
not  peace,  but  victory ; while  we  are  eager  to  in- 
criminate and  slow  to  explain,  resolved  to  learn  nothing 
and  forget  nothing,  to  admit  no  faults  on  our  own 
side,  and  condone  none  on  the  other;  while  we  are 
never  weary  of  flinging  at  each  other’s  heads  the 
fagots  of  Smithfleld  and  the  gibbets  of  Tyburn, 
like  schoolboys  in  a snowball  match, — so  long  we 
are  doing  our  utmost  to  create  the  impossibility  we 
affect  to  deplore.  Far  better  let  the  dead  bury  their 
dead,  and,  while  we  respect  the  constancy  of  the 


xxxviii  Preface. 

sufferers  on  either  side,  not  seek  to  make  controversial 
capital  out  of  past  atrocities,  which  disgraced  religion  ; 
still  less,  as  some  would  have  us,  desire  to  emulate 
them.  Mary  and  her  evil  counsellors  did  more,  no 
doubt,  than  aU  the  Eeformers  put  together,  to  brand 
the  tradition  of  Protestant  exclusiveness  into  the  heart 
and  conscience  of  England ; and  we,  if  we  are  wise, 
shall  take  warning  by  their  example,  how  unity  can 
never  be  restored.^  Actual  persecution  is,  of  course, 
out  of  the  question  in  the  present  state  of  society,  but 

^ It  is  impossible  to  condemn  too  strongly  the  Marian  burnings, 
whether  on  grounds  of  principle  or  of  policy.  But  it  is  fair  to  remember 
that  the  sufferers  never  shrank  from  inflicting  the  penalties  they  were 
ready  to  endure  bravely,  when  their  turn  came  : they  had  no  diflerence 
with  their  persecutors  about  the  principle,  but  only  about  its  application. 
Cranmer,  of  course,  I put  out  of  the  reckoning  altogether.  It  may  or 
may  not  be  tme  that  he  held  the  fingers  of  the  peevish  boy  in  whose 
name  he  misruled  England,  while  forcing  him  to  sign  the  death-warrant 
of  a visionary  little  less  orthodox  and  infinitely  more  honest  than  himself ; 
but  anyhow  he  was  no  more  a genuine  persecutor  than  a genuine  martyr. 
He  burnt  impugners  of  the  Keal  Presence  as  long  as  it  suited  his  interests, 
and  he  was  burnt  for  denying  it— probably  with  sincerity,  for  his  range  of 
belief  seems  to  have  been  a limited  one — after  he  had  solemnly  recanted 
his  denial.  But  Latimer,  w’ho  was  a typical  Reformer  and  unquestion- 
ably honest,  preached  a sermon  worthy  of  Torquemada,  while  Prior 
Forest  was  being  roasted  to  death  over  a slow  fire  for  denying  the 
spiritual  supremacy  of  Henry  vm.  And  I am  afraid  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  Elizabeth’s  Jesuit  victims  would  have  been  equally  ready  to 
burn  any  one  who  denied  the  spiritual  or  temporal  supremacy  of  the  Pope. 
“ The  toleration  of  heresy,”  sayi  Sir  J.  Mackintosh,  “was  deemed  by  men 
of  all  persuasions  to  be  as  unreasonable  as  it  would  now  be  thought  to 
propose  the  impunity  of  murder.”  For  copious  authorities  on  the  Pro- 
testant side,  see  a remarkable  article  on  “ The  Protestant  Theory  of 
Persecution  ” in  the  Rambler  for  March  1862. 


Preface. 


xxxix 


tlie  persecuting  temper  can  express  itself  in  a hundred 
ways,  and  is  the  precise  contradictory  of  that  temper 
in  which  alone  we  can  meet  our  alienated  fellow- 
Christians  with  any  prospect  of  ultimate  agreement. 

And  never  surely  was  the  obligation  more  urgent, 
never  was  there  more  in  the  circumstances  of  the 
day  to  supply  both  warning  and  encouragement,  than 
now.  Ours  is  in  one  sense  a peculiarly  religious  age. 
Eeligious  questionings,  aspirations,  doubts,  interpene- 
trate its  literature  and  thought,  trouble  its  policy,  and 
mingle  in  the  details  of  its  social  life.  It  organizes 
religious  meetings,  congresses,  and  synods  of  every 
hue.  The  religious  question,  as  it  has  been  said,  is  the 
order  of  the  day.  And  this  is  a ground  of  encourage- 
ment. On  the  other  hand,  it  is  also  a very  irreligious 
age.  Scepticism  has  never  before  been  so  open- 
mouthed,  so  widespread,  and  withal  so  oppressively 
respectable  as  it  has  recently  become.  Its  apostles 
do  not  scruple  to  assure  us,  with  an  engaging  frankness, 
that  virtue  and  vice  are  “ natural  products  in  the  same 
sense  as  sugar  and  vitriol,”  or  that  prayer  is  an  obsolete 
superstition  to  be  classed  with  the  belief  in  “ witches, 
dreams,  astrology,  and  auguries  of  good  or  evil  luck,” 
for  which  the  civilized  world  will  learn  to  substitute 


xl 


Preface. 


the  equally  “ ennobling ” and  “consoling”  contempla- 
tion of  the  “ solidarity  between  themselves  and  what 
surrounds  them  through  the  endless  reactions  of 
physical  laws.”  But  stiU.  it  is  not  the  mocking  scep- 
ticism of  Tom  Paine  or  Voltaire.  It  is  sedate,  refined, 
decorous,  respectable ; it  sometimes  almost  seems  to 
be  devout.  But  if  we  are  tempted  to  let  ourselves 
imagine  that  in  losing  its  grossness  it  has  lost  its 
sting,  we  are  likely  to  be  crueUy  undeceived.  And 
indeed  already  there  are  not  wanting  ominous  signs  of 
the  spirit  which  deluged  the  Colosseum  with  Christian 
blood,  or  voices  among  those  which  would  banish 
the  “ pale  Galilean  ” from  an  emancipated  world,  that 
do  not  suffer  us  to  forget  in  what  guise  the  goddess 
Eeason  was  enthroned,  not  a century  ago,  on  the  high 
altar  of  ISTotre  Dame. 

Such  moral  and  intellectual  aberrations  will  never 
be  disposed  of  by  mere  force  of  reasoning,  however 
laborious  and  acute.  They  thrive  in  the  cold  shade 
of  our  mutual  hatreds,  and  would  fade  away  like 
a noisome  exhalation  in  the  bracing  atmosphere 
and  clear  strong  sunshine  of  a Christendom  at  unity 
with  itseK.  But  if  there  still  remains  “the  little 
rift  within  the  lute,”  if  the  trumpet  stHl  gives  an 


Preface. 


xli 


uncertain  sound,  when  it  summons  us  to  the  battle 
wnth  Antichrist, — and  the  spirit  of  Antichrist  is  rife 
among  us  now — hoAV  shall  his  assault  be  met  by  the 
disjointed  and  spasmodic  efforts  of  a straggling  multi- 
tude, without  leader,  discipline,  or  common  watchword  ? 
But  it  is  the  glory  of  Divine  Providence  to  bring  good 
out  of  evil,  and  the  infidel  aggression,  which  threatens 
us  on  every  side,  may  well  be  His  predestined  instru- 
ment for  reuniting  Christian  believers  in  presence  of 
a common  foe. 

On  the  special  bearing  of  the  Eeunion  question  on 
the  Established  Church  I will  make  but  one  remark 
here.  The  present  agitation  against  the  Athanasian 
Creed,  and  the  official  relations  of  the  clergy  to  a 
legislature  which  has  already  sanctioned  adultery,  and  ^ 
is  only  too  likely  ere  long  to  sanction  incest,  must  have 
brought  home  two  facts  very  distinctly  to  the  minds 
even  of  its  most  attached  and  loyal  adherents.  In  the 
first  place,  they  cannot  fail  to  perceive  in  what  a difficult 
position  an  isolated  communion  finds  itself,  whatever 
may  be  pleaded  in  defence  or  excuse  of  its  isolation, 
when  called  upon  to  vindicate  the  most  elementary 
principles  of  Christian  morality  and  belief.^  And, 


' By  the  present  law  a clergyman  is  hound,  on  application,  to  allow  the 

d 


xlii 


Preface. 


secondly,  these  difficulties  afford  a fresh  illustration  of 
the  insecure  tenure  on  which  the  Establishment,  as 
such,  holds  its  ground.^  And  disestablishment,  when- 
ever it  comes,  while  leaving  the  Church  more  free  to 
negotiate  with  external  bodies,  will  also  make  the  need 
for  external  support  more  urgent,  by  withdrawing  the 
prestige  and  cohesive  power  supplied  by  union  with  the 
State. 

And  now,  I am  afraid  I have  detained  the  reader 
too  long,  if  indeed  he  has  allowed  himself  to  be 
detained,  from  studying  testimony  far  weightier  and 
more  authoritative  than  any  I could  hope  to  give.  It 
is  in  itself  a remarkable  fact,  that  “ the  venerable 
Nestor  of  Catholic  theology,”  as  he  has  been  styled, 
whose  life  has  been  spent  as  a Catholic  professor  and 
prelate  in  the  very  centre  of  northern  Catholicism,  and 
who  has  himself,  in  former  days,  devoted  the  vast 
resources  of  his  intellect  and  learning  to  the  exposure 


use  of  liis  church  for  the  re-marriage  (so-called)  of  a divorced  parishioner, 
whether  guilty  of  previous  adultery  or  not,  and  may  be  compelled  to 
marry  the  “ innocent  party  ” himself ; every  such  pretended  marriage  being 
of  course  a nullity  and  a sacrilege.  A notorious  case  occurred  not  long 
ago  in  one  of  the  principal  parish  churches  of  London. 

1 This  is  expressly  recognised  in  Dr.  Pusey’s  letter  on  the  subject,  pub- 
li.shed  in  the  Times  of  Aug.  13. 


Preface. 


xliii 


of  Protestant  error/  should,  during  the  last  twelve 
years,  have  scarcely  published  a single  work  without 
pointedly  introducing  this  question  of  Eeunion,  which 
he  has  now,  when  ultramontanism  has  just  won  its 
crowning  triumph,  set  himself  expressly  to  discuss. 
Speaking  from  the  platform  of  a long  experience,  a 
profound  acquaintance  with  the  past  history  of  the 
Church,  and  an  extensive  familiarity  with  the  present 
condition  of  both  Catholic  and  Protestant  society,  he 
declares  that  union  to  he  at  once  a supreme  necessity 
of  the  Christian  commonwealth  and  a perfectly 
practicable  achievement.  It  is  not  the  voice  of  a 
youthful  zealot,  or  a dreaming  mystic,  or  a fiery 
reformer,  which  addresses  us,  but  a venerable  priest, 
fuU  of  years  and  of  honours,  cautious  by  temperament, 
and  of  a nation  pre-eminent  for  its  critical  acumen, 
conservative  and  Catholic  to  the  backbone  in  his 
instincts  and  habits,  who  sums  up  in  these  weighty 
words  the  concentrated  convictions  of  a lifetime.  It 
is  indeed  the  utterance  of  a mitis  sapientia,  chastened 
by  long  years  of  toil  and  trial,  but  also  of  an 
enthusiasm,  in  the  best  and  truest  sense  of  the  word, 

^ See,  e.g.  liis  Die  Reformation  in  3 vols.  and  his  Martin  Luther. 


xliv 


Preface. 


which  only  shines  out  with  brighter  lustre  through  the 
veil  of  patient  suffering  and  advancing  age,  because  it 
is  based  on  the  faith  of  an  unerring  promise,  and  lives 
in  the  habitual  vision  of  the  world  beyond  the  grave. 

H.  K 0. 


Feast  of  the  Nativity  of  oue  Lady,  1872. 


LECTUEE  I. 


GENERAL  REVIEW  OF  THE  RELIGIOUS  CONDITION  OF 
THE  WORLD. 

HE  Christian  portion  of  the  human  family  may  he 


reckoned  at  some  350  million  souls,  and  includes 
about  thirty  per  cent,  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  world. 
But  Christians  are  divided  into  many  larger  or  smaller 
communities  or  churches,  which  mutually  exclude  each 
other,  allowing  no  communion  of  worship,  sacraments, 
or  prayer,  and  accusing  one  another  of  errors  or  de- 
partures from  the  teaching  of  Christ  so  serious  as  to 
endanger  salvation. 

Divisions  and  formations  of  separate  churches  were 
not  indeed  infrequent  during  the  first  thousand  years 
after  Christ.  But  they  were  generally  of  short  duration, 
and  after  a while  were  reabsorbed  into  the  great  Catholic 
Church.  So  it  was  with  the  Churches  which  took  their 
rise  from  the  Arian  controversies,  and  those  which 
had  separated  mainly  on  ethical  grounds,  referring  to 


A 


2 Reunion  of  the  CJmrches. 

ecclesiastical  discipline,  such  as  the  ISTovatians,  Dona- 
tists,  Montanists,  and  naost  of  the  Western  sects. 
But  this  cannot  he  said  of  the  separations  and  newly 
formed  communities  of  the  last  thousand  years.  These 
still  continue,  that  is,  the  principal  parties  or  churches, 
with,  on  the  whole,  no  diminution  of  vital  and  expansive 
power.  Let  us  take  a hird’s-eye  view  of  them. 

The  Greek  Catholic  or  Eastern  Church,  which 
numbers  about  seventy-five  million  members,  in  Eussia, 
Turkey,  and  Greece,  has  separated  from  the  Eoman 
Catholic,  or  Western  Church,  which  contains  about  180 
millions.  This  separation  began  about  the  middle  of 
the  eleventh  century,  but  was  only  consummated  in 
the  thirteenth,  in  consequence  of  the  taking  of  Con- 
stantinople and  violent  subjugation  of  the  Greeks  by 
Westerns  acting  under  papal  inspiration.  To  this 
Church,  which  takes  the  name  of  “Orthodox,”  are 
closely  related  the  Nestorians,  the  remnant  of  a Church 
once  widely  spread  in  the  interior  of  Asia,  which  has 
been  separated  from  the  rest  of  the  Christian  world 
since  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century,  in  consequence  of 
the  controversies  about  the  Person  of  Christ,  and  the 
Monophysites,  who  separated  about  the  same  time,  and 
from  similar  causes,  as  representatives  of  the  opposite 


Religious  Condition  of  the  World. 


o 


view,  and  formed  a far  more  nnmerons  body  than  the 
Nestorians,  comprising  three  national  Churches,  the 
Armenian,  the  Coptic  in  Egypt,  and  the  Abyssinian. 

And  as  the  Church  has  been  separated  since  the 
twelfth  century  into  two  numerically  unequal  halves, 
each  going  its  own  way  and  accusing  the  other  of 
schism  and  heresy,  so  in  the  sixteenth  century  came  the 
great  split  in  the  Western  or  Latin  Church,  which  cut 
far  deeper.  Out  of  the  reforming  movement  which 
after  1517  took  possession  of  the  whole  populace  of 
Western  Europe,  sprang  by  degrees  new  ecclesiastical 
societies,  which  are  generically  termed  Protestant.  And 
hence  three  great  systems  have  grown  up.  There  is 
first  the  Lutheran,  covering  Germany,  Scandinavia,  and 
the  eastern  coasts  of  Eussia,  about  thirty  millions 
strong ; then  the  Eeformed,  including  some  twelve 
miEion  inhabitants  of  Switzerland,  the  E’etherlands, 
Scotland,  and  parts  of  Germany  and  Hungary,  Dis- 
tinguished from  both  these  is  the  English  Episcopal 
Church,  stiE  as  yet  the  State  Church,  which  has  kept 
closer  in  its  constitution  and  worship  to  the  two  ancient 
Churches  of  the  East  and  West,  and  from  the  compara- 
tive brevity  and  vagueness  of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles 
which  form  its  doctrinal  confession,  is  on  the  one  hand 


4 


Reunion  of  the  Chui'ches. 


less  widely  removed  from  Catholic  dogmas,  while  on 
the  other  it  allows  more  room  for  differences  of  teach- 
ing and  interpretation. 

Meanwhile,  besides  these  great  national  Churches 
there  sprang  up  at  and  after  the  time  of  the  Eeformation 
many  smaller  sects,  which,  though  several  have  died 
out,  not  only  still  survive — chiefly  in  England  and 
North  America — but  are  constantly  being  increased  in 
number.  There  are  at  present  about  a hundred  of  these 
smaller  religious  communities,  numbering  some  18,000^9*0 
members.  Many  of  them  have  never  extended  beyond 
the  land  of  their  birth,  and  are  hardly  known  by 
name  elsewhere.  Others,  especially  the  Anabaptists, 
count  their  adherents  by  millions.  Nor  are  these  sects 
always  based  on  doctrinal  distinctions.  Sometimes 
peculiarities  in  social  arrangements  or  worship,  or 
methods  of  education  and  individual  culture,  form  the 
leading  characteristic,  as  is  shown  in  the  case  of  the 
Moravians  and  the  English  and  American  Methodists. 

It  is  chiefly  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  in  both  its  English 
and  American  branches,  that  the  capacity  and  inclina- 
tion for  forming  sects  has  developed  itself,  while  the 
German  people,  if  we  except  the  Swabian  branch,  has 
never  manifested  such  a tendency. 


Religious  Condition  of  the  World.  5 

The  circle  of  thought  ■within  which  most  of  these 
sects  revolve  is  a very  narrow  one,  and  the  differences 
are  often  confined  to  points  of  infinitesimal  importance. 
Not  unfrequently  jealousy  or  love  of  notoriety,  or  even 
a financial  speculation,  is  the  inspiring  motive  of  the 
founders  of  a new  sect ; but  the  mere  fact  of  their  so 
often  succeeding  proves  how  ready  the  people  are  to 
welcome  such  associations. 

It  is  true  that  smaller  communities  are  sometimes 
distinguished  by  a stricter  discipline  and  higher  code 
of  morality,  for  the  individual  is  more  supported  and 
upheld  by  the  body  of  which  he  is  a member,  more 
closely  watched  and  far  more  dependent  on  the  good 
opinion  of  the  rest.  This  moral  earnestness,  and 
abstinence  at  least  from  ordinary  vices,  is  generally, 
e.g.,  to  be  observed  in  the  Anabaptist  settlements, 
and  their  example  benefits  the  members  of  other  bodies 
also. 

Many  of  these  little  communities  may  exist  for 
centuries  without  either  injuring  or  profiting  the 
rest  of  the  world.  They  lead  a quiet  Life,  far  from 
the  busy  throng  of  men,  sometimes  closely  hemmed  in 
by  the  adherents  of  antagonistic  creeds,  and  thus,  as 
it  were,  welded  together,  or  perhaps  united  also  by  ties 


6 Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

of  blood.  And  so  they  maintain  themselves  with 
indestructible  vigour  in  spite  of  constant  dangers  and 
ill-treatment.  In  this  way  the  ISTestorians  or  Christians 
of  St.  Thomas  have  now  existed  for  1300  years  in 
East  India,  and  the  Copts  stiU  longer  in  Egypt. 

We  thus  find  two  principal  families  of  Christian 
Churches, — first  the  ancient  Churches,  whose  continuity 
has  never  been  interrupted,  and  which  reach  up  by  a 
regular  succession  to  the  first  beginnings  of  Christianity, 
however  great  may  have  been  their  internal  changes ; 
such  are  the  Eastern  Church  with  its  daughters,  the 
Eussian,  Armenian,  Coptic,  and  Nestorian ; and  the 
Western  Catholic  Church.  The  other  family  is  com- 
posed of  those  Churches  which  have  issued  directly  or 
indirectly  from  that  powerful  religious  movement  called 
the  Eeformation,  and  the  communities  and  sects  which 
have  again  broken  off  from  them. 

This  great  number  of  divisions  and  separate  Churches 
has  its  good  as  well  as  its  evil  consequences,  but  we 
shall  have  no  doubt  on  a closer  inspection  as  to  which 
preponderate.  As  to  the  first,  it  may  be  said  that  every 
new  sect  or  Church  is  an  experiment,  or  a trial  of  certain 
doctrines  or  usages  and  regulations  peculiar  to  the  sect. 
Here  Gamaliel’s  maxim  may  be  applied,  and  Church 


Religious  Condition  of  the  World.  7 

history  regarded  as  a great  course  of  experiments  ; what 
has  held  its  own,  or  even  increased  in  strength  with 
the  lapse  of  time,  has  conquered  for  itself  the  right  of 
permanence,  while  what  passes  away  and  disappears 
under  the  stream  was  not  worth  preserving.  But  then 
history  and  experience  contradict  this  view,  Islam, 
which  must  be  considered  at  bottom  a Christian  heresy, 
the  bastard  offspring  of  a Christian  father  and  Jewish 
mother,  and  is  indeed  more  closely  allied  to  Chris- 
tianity than  Manicheeism,  which  is  reckoned  a 
Christian  sect, — Islam  has  now  maintained  for  1250 
years  an  at  least  outwardly  unshaken  dominion  over  a 
large  portion  of  mankind,  120  millions,  and  moreover 
still  makes  fresh  advances  every  year  in  Africa,  Aus- 
tralia, and  the  interior  of  India,  which  exceed  the 
progress  of  Christianity  in  those  countries.  It  has 
made  large  encroachments  on  Christianity,  from  which 
it  has  ahenated  whole  regions,  without,  on  the  other 
hand,  suffering  any  important  losses  through  conversion 
to  our  faith.  And  yet  how  clear  it  is  to  us  that  history 
has  already  pronounced  sentence  on  this  religion,  and 
sealed  its  rejection,  when  we  consider  the  once  flourish- 
ing, now  fallen,  condition  of  those  lands  where  Islam 
prevails,  and  of  their  denizens.  Such  are  Asia  Minor, 


8 Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

Syria,  Persia,  Cyprus,  Egypt,  and  a closer  inspection 
proves  that  it  is  precisely  to  their  false  religion  that 
their  unhappy  condition  and  gradual  decay  and  extinc- 
tion are  due.  Nor  is  this  at  all  inconsistent  with  the 
fact  that  the  same  religion  has  benefited  peoples  in 
a lower  stage  of  development,  as  has  been  recently 
observed  in  the  case  of  negroes  converted  to  Mahomet- 
anism in  South  Africa. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  there  is  something  repul- 
sive in  the  present  aspect  of  the  Christian  world,  with 
its  sharply-divided  and  hostile  Churches  and  sects, 
mutually  hating  and  incriminating  one  another.  And 
were  we  not  accustomed  to  the  sight  from  our  youth  up,  it 
would  strike  us  as  still  uglier,  and  the  contrast  between 
the  idea  and  the  reality  would  be  more  glaring  in  our 
eyes.  In  all  the  other  highest  departments  of  life,  in 
science,  in  art,  the  power  of  attraction  and  union  of 
minds  asserts  itself,  and  sooner  or  later  dissonance  and 
hatred  are  lost  in  harmony.  With  religion  alone  it  is 
different ; what  according  to  its  inmost  essence  was 
meant  to  be  the  most  powerful  bond  of  union,  because 
possessed  and  filled  with  love,  has  been  the  cause  of 
so  many  divisions — what  was  to  establish  peace  has 
kindled  strife  and  bloody  wars — what  was  to  give  men 


Religious  Condition  of  the  World.  g 

certainty  and  confidence  lias  provoked  doubt  and 
planted  mistrust  in  tbeir  minds.  The  division  of  the 
two  great  ancient  Churches  of  East  and  West  is,  or 
rather  was,  unmeaning,  because  of  their  essential  unity 
of  doctrine;  now,  on  the  other  hand,  since  July  18, 
1870,  it  is  different.  And  here  permit  me  to  observ^e 
how  perilous  may  be  the  consequences  of  this  eccle- 
siastical division  in  the  immediate  future. 

There  can  be  no  question  that,  since  the  end  of  the 
Franco-German  war,  the  Eastern  question  is  the  weighti- 
est, and  at  all  events  far  the  most  difficult,  question  of 
the  day.  Considered  from  a purely  political  point  of 
view,  it  must  be  called  simply  insoluble ; and  yet  on 
its  solution  hinges  the  future  of  Austria,  and  in  no 
slight  degree  of  the  world  generally,  which  has  now  to 
take  in  the  German  Empire.  No  douht  time  might 
eventually  bring  a solution,  but  only  in  the  distant 
future ; for  the  Turkish  people,  which  now  tyrannizes 
over  millions  of  Christians,  is,  so  to  speak,  at  the 
point  of  death  ; it  decreases  considerably  every  year, 
while  the  Christians  steadily  increase.  But  the  situa- 
tion is  too  intolerable,  and  the  impatience  of  mankind 
too  great,  to  wait  for  the  solution  of  time,  and  the 
great  crisis  is  constantly  forcing  its  way  to  the  front. 


10  Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

Eussians  and  Greeks — the  great  majority,  that  is,  of 
the  population  of  the  Empire — are  co-religionists, 
members  of  the  same  Church.  Will  Eussia  be  wiEing 
or  able  to  look  on  quietly  much  longer  on  a situation 
such  as  all  correspondents  on  the  spot  describe  it 
to  be,  which  no  diplomatic  intervention  can  touch, 
because  it  is  grounded  in  the  very  nature  of  things, 
inasmuch  as  for  the  Mahometan  conscience  there  is 
no  rule  but  the  Koran,  which  breathes  only  hatred  and 
contempt  for  Christians  ? And  thus  all  the  efforts  of 
England,  France,  and  Austria  to  avert  the  catastrophe 
have  as  yet  been  fruitless,  except  for  gaining  time. 
Eussia  alone  holds  the  keys  of  the  destiny  of  the 
Turkish  Empire.  And  who  will  contradict  Eussia  if 
she  decides  that  it  is  a duty  to  be  carried  out  by  force 
of  arms,  to  improve  the  desperate  condition  of  the  Chris- 
tians in  that  Empire  ? Have  not  all  the  European 
powers  acted  from  time  to  time  on  this  principle  ? But 
if  only  an  ecclesiastical  union  between  East  and  West 
were  brought  about,  how  completely  would  the  whole 
situation  be  changed  ! A general  co-operation  of  the 
great  Christian  powers  would  then  become  possible  for 
warding  off  the  danger  from  both  the  Austrian  and 
German  Empires,  and  a solution  in  accordance  with  the 


Religious  Conditio7i  of  the  World.  ii 

balance  of  power  in  Europe  might  be  found.  More 
than  that : slight  as  is  the  real  difference  between  the 
Eusso-Greek  and  Latin  Churches,  the  Eussian  people 
are  profoundly  impressed  with  the  belief,  long  since 
studiously  fostered  by  their  rulers,  that  theirs  is  the 
sole  true  and  legitimate  Church,  and  all  foreign  nations 
are  to  be  regarded  as  heretical  and  unbeheving,  and 
that  consequently  every  foreign  war  is  a religious  war 
of  believers  against  unbelievers.  It  will  be  remem- 
bered by  what  means  the  Emperor  Nicholas  sought  to 
increase  and  accentuate  this  national  prejudice.  His 
proclamation  of  March  26,  1848,  is  well  known  : “Hear 
and  bow  down,  ye  Gentiles,  for  God  is  with  us and 
his  speech  to  the  Eussian  and  Polish  Bishops,  on  May 
26,  1849  : “The  true  faith  survives  in  Eussia  only;  in 
the  West  it  is  utterly  lost.”  The  Czar  Alexander  ll., 
also,  after  his  accession,  addressed  the  army  as  “the 
true  soldiers  and  champions  of  the  Church,  the  throne, 
and  the  fatherland  ” — so  that  the  Eussian  soldier  is  in- 
spired by  the  belief  that  his  first  duty  is  to  defend  the 
Church  with  his  arms.  It  is  obvious  what  a lever  this 
view  supplies,  and  what  an  enthusiasm  it  may  kindle  in 
war,  and  how  grave  would  be  the  danger  for  Germany 
if  ever  an  anti-German  or  Panslavist  party  succeeded  in 


12  Reimion  of  the  Churches. 

involving  the  colossal  Empire  in  a war  with  us,  and  this 
war  came  to  he  considered  by  Eussia  as  a religious 
war. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Churches  which  sprang  from 
the  Eeformation  of  the  sixteenth  century  have  been 
gradually,  and  for  the  most  part  reluctantly,  urged  or 
violently  driven  into  separation  by  profound  differences 
of  doctrine,  and  when  once  all  intercommunion  had 
been  entirely  broken  off,  the  original  differences  of  doc- 
trine grew  wider,  and  were  moulded  into  systems  whose 
hard  inflexible  letter  made  all  reconciliation  impossible. 
Historically  considered,  we  know  that  the  Eeformation 
was  inevitable,  and  that,  when  no  room  was  allowed  it 
in  the  bosom  of  the  ancient  Church,  a breach  of  unity 
was  the  necessary  consequence.  ISTor  can  we  blind 
ourselves  to  the  fact  that  it  has  had  many  beneficial 
results,  and  has  in  various  ways  proved  a gain  even  to 
the  ancient  Church  which  was  so  hostile  to  it.  We  see 
that  it  has  created  a rich  intellectual  world,  and  given 
an  impulse  to  every  form  of  mental  activity.  It  has 
become  the  most  powerful  and  permanent  force  in 
modern  history.  But  the  three  centuries  and  a half  of 
its  existence  have  apparently  sufficed  to  bring  out  and 
mature  whatever  spiritual  resources  it  contained  within 


Religious  Condition  of  the  World.  1 3 

itself.  That  period  has  also  supplied  evidence  that  these 
new  ecclesiastical  creations  have  faults  and  defects 
of  their  own  which  they  have  no  inherent  power  of 
remedying,  and  that  they  are  incapable  of  really  and 
permanently  satisfying  all  the  religious  needs  of  man- 
kind. The  morbid  hankering  after  division,  the  dis- 
content of  individuals,  the  incompetence  to  form  any 
church  organizations  standing  firmly  on  their  own 
foundations,  have  long  been  sensibly  felt ; and  it 
is  impossible  not  to  perceive  that  in  the  first  heat 
of  the  struggle  and  passionate  excitement  of  the  Ee- 
formation  tempest,  many  doctrines  and  practices  of  the 
ancient  Church  were  much  too  hastily  rejected,  leaving 
a gap  it  is  difficult  to  fill  up.  The  time  will  come,  and 
in  the  opinion  and  desire  of  many  is  already  come, 
when  the  Petrine  and  Pauline  Churches  will  develope 
into  a Johannean  Church,  or,  as  used  to  be  said  in 
mediaeval  times,  to  the  period  of  the  Father  and  the 
Son  will  succeed  the  age  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  And  this 
would  be  brought  about  by  the  existing  Churches  being- 
content  to  learn  and  receive  of  one  another,  and  to 
impart  to  one  another  their,  peculiar  possessions  and 
privileges,  and  thus  enter  into  the  noblest  community 
of  goods,  but  above  all,  by  their  setting  a higher  price  on 


14  Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

the  doctrines  and  creeds  which,  they  have  inherited  and 
confess  in  common  than  on  what  divides  them.  Many 
will  ask  whether  this  is  possible.  I reply  that  it  must 
be  possible,  for  it  is  a duty.  N'o  doubt  a great  purifica- 
tion and  renewal  of  the  Church  in  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury was  a pressing  need  : the  condition  of  things  had 
become  untenable  and  intolerable.  But  tliis  process 
might  have  been  accomplished  without  the  divisions 
which  gTew  out  of  it,  whereas  not  only  have  the  Catho- 
lics separated  from  the  Protestants,  but  among  these 
last,  the  Lutherans  have  separated  from  the  Eeformed 
(Calvinists),  and  the  Anglicans  from  both  alike.  In 
this  then  we  must  acknowledge  a gTievous  fault  of  men, 
originating  in  their  passions  and  sinful  errors,  as  history 
abundantly  testifies.  On  that  point  aU  schools  and 
parties  are  substantially  agreed,  only  that  each  throws 
the  whole  blame,  or  the  greater  part  of  it,  on  its  oppo- 
nents. Every  Church  maintains  that  the  rest  are  bound 
to  unite  with  it,  and  thus  atone  for  the  crime  of  their 
forefathers. 

That  Christ,  the  Founder  of  the  Church,  desired  and 
enjoined  its  unity  is  clear.  In  His  Eucharistic  prayer 
we  read,  “ That  they  all  may  be  one ; that  as  Thou, 
Father,  art  in  Me  and  I in  Thee,  they  also  may  be  one  in 


Religions  Condiiion  of  the  World.  15 

Us,  that  the  world  may  believe  that  Thou  hast  sent  Me.”^ 
Nay,  this  unity  is,  as  He  further  prays,  to  he  a perfect 
one,  and  therefore  the  most  penetrating  and  piirest  con- 
ceivable among  men.  And  here  it  is  especially  to  be 
noted  that  this  unity  of  Christian  believers  is  itself  to 
serve  as  the  means  to  a further  end;  it  is  to  be  a testimony 
for  the  world  in  general,  and  for  all  nations,  of  the  truth 
and  divinity  of  the  teaching  of  Christ.  And  such  it 
was  in  the  early  ages.  “ See  how  these  Christians  love 
one  another,”  was  then  a common  saying  of  the  heathen. 
According  to  the  will  of  our  Lord,  men  ought  always  to 
be  able  to  say,  “ A religion  which  unites  its  adherents, 
and  holds  together  a vast  society  so  closely,  without  any 
coercion,  through  the  Spirit  which  animates  it,  bears  the 
impress  of  its  truth  and  divinity.”  And  thereby  He 
has  of  course  given  us  to  understand  that  ecclesiastical 
divisions  and  a multiplicity  of  separate  Churches  will 
produce  just  the  opposite  impression  on  non-Christian 
nations,  and  on  many  Christians  too,  and  will  be  to  them 
a great  stumblingblock  and  occasion  of  serious  doubt 
as  to  the  truth  of  Christianity.  Any  one  who  wishes 
to  realize  this  has  only  to  ask  some  educated  Jew 
resident  among  us  what  impression  the  strife  and 
controversy  of  the  Churches  makes  upon  him. 

^ John  xvii.  21. 


1 6 Reunion  of  the  ChiLrcJies. 

At  the  same  time,  no  Church  can  ignore  the  command 
and  commission  to  teach  and  baptize  heathen  nations. 
It  is  a duty  and  mission  laid  upon  us  to  bring  within 
the  reach  of  foreign  nations  the  benefits  of  civilisation, 
culture,  moral  improvement,  and  elevation  of  both 
family  and  civil  life,  by  the  only  possible  means,  of 
religious  instruction  and  ecclesiastical  organization, 
whereby  we  ourselves  obtained  them.  But  more  than 
two-thirds  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  world  are  heathen; 
there  are  still  800  million  souls  unconverted  to  Chris- 
tianity. And  yet  we  may  truly  say  that  almost  the 
whole  human  race  is  possessed  with  a feeling  of  rest- 
lessness unknown  even  in  the  ages  of  the  great  migra- 
tion of  nations,  while  at  the  same  time  the  wonderfully 
increased  facilities  of  intercourse  have  roused  a passion 
for  travel,  and  an  irresistible  impulse  to  more  intimate 
union  among  different  peoples.  The  most  remote,  ob- 
scure, and  unknown  corners  of  the  earth  are  explored, 
all  the  laboriously  constructed  barriers  of  earlier  days 
give  way  to  pressure  from  without,  or  are  torn  down 
by  the  nations  which  erected  them,  and  we  observe 
with  surprise,  in  how  many  parts  of  the  earth  civilized 
men  and  barbarians,  Christians  and  heathen,  jostle  one 
another,  so  that  in  America  Cliinese  meet  and  miugle 
with  Europeans.  We  see  how  nations  which  have  long 


Religiotis  Condition  of  the  World.  17 

remained  simk  in  the  lowest  depth  of  moral  or  intellec- 
tual stagnation,  are  suddenly  drawn  into  the  vortex  of 
the  great  world-stream  which  has  broken  in  upon  them. 
It  seems  as  though  no  nation  of  the  world  was  to  be 
allowed  any  longer  to  go  on  vegetating  independently 
on  its  old  foundations.  Even  the  great  civilized  nations 
of  Eastern  Asia,  the  Hindus,  the  Chinese,  the  Japanese, 
are  constrained  to  enter  into  European  conditions  and 
requirements,  and  to  appropriate  the  arts  and  methods 
of  education  of  the  Christian  West.  But  this  picture, 
which  I have  only  indicated  by  a few  touches  here, 
while  on  the  one  side  it  encourages  the  brightest  hopes, 
discloses  on  the  other  some  dark  spots.  The  first  is 
the  fact,  more  and  more  forcing  itself  on  the  notice  of 
observers,  that  many  of  the  peoples  now  dwelling  on  the 
earth  are  not  only  incapable  of  any  historical  existence, 
but  are  inevitably  doomed  to  destruction,  and  are,  some 
slowly,  some  rapidly,  fading  away.  The  Indians  in 
North  and  South  America,  the  negroes  in  Australia,  the 
inhabitants  of  the  South  Sea  Islands,  the  Hottentots  in 
South  Africa,  and  other  tribes,  are  disappearing.  Of 
the  once  numerous  tribes  of  North  America,  many  are 
already  extinct,  and  their  very  names  forgotten.  The 
most  harmless  contact  with  strangers,  or  the  mere 


B 


1 8 Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

presence  of  Europeans  or  their  descendants,  is  enough 
to  bring  havoc  on  many  of  the  native  races. 

The  study  of  geography  has  revealed  a yet  darker 
side  in  the  present  condition  of  the  nations.  Nature 
herself,  the  very  soil,  groans  under  the  burden  and  curse 
of  a false  religion. — for  when  the  people  degenerate, 
nature  herself  grows  brutalized  and  depraved.  The 
earth  is  given  men  to  till,  but  irreligious  or  misbe- 
lieving populations  destroy  instead  of  cultivating  it ; 
under  their  hands  it  becomes  unfruitful,  and  loses  its 
grace  and  vegetation.  Towns  and  villages  decay,  and 
gradually  perish,  and  where  once  was  a rich  country 
and  busy  population,  there  is  a howling  wilderness. 
No  land  under  Moslem  rule  can  now  he  called  a flourish- 
ing one.  In  the  region  between  the  Tigris  and  Euph- 
rates, the  ancient  Chaldea,  the  cradle  of  the  human 
race,  there  is  a widespread  desolation,  little  agricul- 
ture, only  a few  decayed  and  impoverished  towns,  no 
villages,  and  a mere  roving  population,  who  know 
notliing  of  their  ancestors,  and  sink  deeper  every  year 
into  a state  of  utter  barbarism.  All  those  fair  and 
populous  cities  of  which  history  tells,  that  vast,  civilized 
and  flourishing  population  which  held  its  place  there 
far  into  the  middle  ages,  have  disappeared,  and  if  the 


Religious  Condition  of  the  World.  19 

reason  is  asked,  there  is  but  one  reply — It  is  the  work 
of  a false  religion ! What  a spectacle  is  presented  now 
by  the  once  great  and  powerful  Persian  Empire,  a 
country  more  than  twice  the  size  of  Germany,  but  with 
only  some  five  million  inhabitants,  with  few  towns,  and 
none  of  which  whole  quarters  are  not  in  ruins,  pillaged 
by  a wretched  despotic  government,  and  now  lying 
helpless  under  the  assault  of  a deadly  famine,  while  it 
feebly  awaits  the  hour  when  Kussia  may  please  to  take 
it  in  hand.^  And  yet  the  very  religion  which  exhibits 
these  phenomena  in  Turkey,  North  Africa,  and  Egypt, 
and  which  one  might  suppose  to  be  gradually  dying  out 
through  the  decay  of  the  peoples  who  are  under  its 
curse,  shows  itself  elsewhere  full  of  youthful  vigour  and 
elasticity.  In  the  Indian  Archipelago  and  the  interior 
of  Africa,  from  the  Niger  to  the  Cape,  it  is  in  rapid 
advance,  conquering  whole  heathen  kingdoms  in  its 
course,  and  makes  progress  even  among  the  Christian 
Abyssinians.  But  unfortunately  there  is  no  other  reli- 
gion which  has  so  deeply-rooted  a hatred  to  Christianity 
as  Mahometanism,  and  this  hatred  is  engrained  into 
every  nation  which  embraces  it. 

1 [As  regards  the  hollow  and  unprogi’essive  character  of  Turkish  civilisa- 
tion, cf.  Newman’s  Lectures  on  the  Turks,  Lect.  iv.  “Barbarism  and 
Civilisation.”] 


LECTUEE  IL 

THE  DUTY  OF  CHETSTIAN  NATIONS  TO  THE  HEATHEN,  AND 
ITS  GREAT  HINDRANCE, 

E are  met  here  by  an  objection  which  requires  to 


be  disposed  of.  I will  state  it  in  the  words 


of  a high  authority  on  the  subject  of  ethnology : “ Do 
not  deceive  yourselves ; every  nation  has  its  own  reli- 
gion. Catholicity  was  and  is  impossible.  The  German, 
the  Italian,  and  the  Greek  have  and  always  had  differ- 
ent religions,  because  they  are  different  nations.  We 
should  not  speak  of  Christianity  so  much  as  of  Chris- 
tian nations,  and  of  each  of  these  in  particular,  for  it  is 
the  national  mind  which  really  apprehends  and  inter- 
prets the  message  according  to  its  capacity.”  It  is  true 
that  the  author  of  tliis  passage  belongs  to  a people  with 
whom  religion  and  nationality  are  so  completely  iden- 
tified that  the  one  covers  and  sustains  the*  other,  and 
neither  can  exist  apart.  But  his  view  is  contradicted 


20 


Duty  to  the  Heathen  and  its  Hindrance.  2 1 

by  the  whole  course  of  Christian  history,  and  not  only 
Christianity  but  Mahometanism  has  the  character  of  a 
world-wide  rehgion,  destined  to  embrace  many  and 
diverse  nationalities.  Turks,  Arabians,  and  Persians  are 
as  unlike  each  other  as  any  three  nations  on  about  the 
same  level  of  civilisation  well  can  be,  and  yet  all  these 
have  the  same  religion ; and  are  not  the  Scotch  and  Swiss 
Protestants  of  wholly  different  nationality  though  they 
have  the  same  religion  ? There  is  only  so  much  truth 
in  the  view  in  question,  that,  in  the  first  place,  there 
are  nations  whose  moral  and  spiritual  condition  is  so 
deplorably  low,  that  they  have  no  aptitude  for  a spiritual 
religion  like  the  Christian.  Such,  for  instance,  are  the 
Papuas  of  New  Holland,  those  most  wretched  and 
apparently  most  hopelessly  degraded  of  human  beings, 
on  whom  the  labours  of  missionaries  for  long  years  have 
been  wasted.  It  is  true,  secondly,  that  a religion  which 
has  once  got  possession  of  a nation  interpenetrates,  and 
in  a sense  transforms,  the  national  character,  and  thus 
no  doubt  briugs  out  differences,  the  cause  of  which 
might  be  confounded  with  the  effect,  if  it  were  to  be 
deduced  from  the  original  character  of  the  people, 
whereas  it  is  really  the  result  of  a religious  faith  received 
from  without.  It  must  further  be  admitted,  that  how- 


22  Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

ever  close  the  similarity  of  views  and  Churcli  organiza- 
tion, the  apprehension  and  practice  of  a religion  will 
vary  widely  according  to  national  temperament,  and 
these  differences  will  not  be  removed  or  equalized  by 
the  mere  fact  of  two  nations  belonging  to  the  same 
great  Church.  Thus,  for  instance,  a German  Catholic, 
suddenly  transported  to  Calabria,  and  master  of  the 
language,  would  find  it  difficult  to  realize  that  he  and 
his  neighbours  possessed  the  same  religion,  so  strange 
would  the  materialistic  and  magical  distortion  of  Chris- 
tianity appear  to  him.  When,  again,  he  first  came  in 
contact  with  the  religious  notions  and  practices  of  a 
baptized  Indian  in  South  America,  what  violence  would 
he  have  to  do  to  his  feelings  before  he  could  realize 
that  they  both  professed  the  same  faith ; while,  on  the 
other  hand  a married  pair  in  Germany,  of  whom  one  is 
a believing  Catholic  and  the  other  a believing  Protes- 
tant, can  carry  on  domestic  worship  and  Bible-reading 
together  for  years  in  perfect  harmony. 

It  cannot  then  he  denied  that  the  great  Christian 
powers  have  a call  and  a duty  to  extend  to  the 
heathen  nations  under  their  dominion,  or  within  the 
sphere  of  their  influence,  the  benefits  of  civilisation. 
Por  even  those  nations  which  are  really  cultivated,  and 


Duty  to  the  Heathen  and  its  Hindra^ice.  23 

possess  a literature,  art,  and  a kind  of  civilisation  of 
their  own,  such  as  the  Chinese  and  Japanese,  are  not, 
properly  speaking,  civilized,  for  they  want  that  humaniz- 
ing which  a morality  based  on  the  laws  of  righteousness 
and  love  to  man  can  alone  supply,  and  that  depends  on 
religion.  There  is  therefore  only  one  kind  of  civilisa- 
tion, which  is  the  product  of  the  Christian  spirit,  and 
those  nations  alone  possess  a genuine  civilisation 
which  have  passed  under  the  discipline  of  the  Christian 
Church,  and  are  still  learning  in  that  school.  The 
antithesis  to  this  is  barbarism ; and  it  is  no  paradox,  but 
a notorious  fact,  that  cultivated  nations  such  as  those 
named  just  now  are  at  the  same  time  barbarous.  Even 
in  the  bosoni  of  Christian  civilisation  there  must  be 
a constant  struggle  against  the  symptoms  threatening, 
either  from  above  or  below,  a relapse  into  barbarism. 
The  gravity  of  the  danger  has  just  been  exemplified  in 
the  frightful  tragedy  of  the  Paris  Commune,  and  what 
is  connected  with  it  aU  over  Europe.  And  therefore 
what  has  been  called  the  internal  or  domestic  mission 
of  Europe  must  be  as  carefully  attended  to  as  the 
external  mission  to  the  heathen  ; indeed,  the  former  is 
the  more  pressing  and  indispensable  of  the  two. 

But  here  I must  explain  more  precisely  what  I under- 


24 


Reunion  of  the  Churches. 


stand  by  civilisation,  and  wbat  I mean  by  the  duty 
incumbent  on  the  great  Christian  states  and  nations, 
first  towards  themselves,  and  then  towards  the  heathen 
world.  Our  whole  social  order,  every  public  and  private 
institution  or  mode  of  life,  rests,  or  should  rest,  on  the 
following  truths  : — Before  God  all  men  are  equal,  all 
are  called  to  the  highest  attainable  moral  and  spiritual 
perfection,  and  thence  to  happiness,  and  all  should  lovg 
one  another  as  brothers ; there  should  be  no  castes  and 
no  slavery.  Every  man  is  a free  person,  not  to  be 
treated  as  a means  or  a thing,  but  as  an  end  in  himself. 
There  must  therefore  be  a free  development  and  expres- 
sion of  all  powers  and  capabilities,  and  legal  right  of 
exercising  them,  limited  by  due  regard  for  the  common 
liberty  of  all  Marriage  is  an  institution  consecrated  by 
religion  on  the  basis  of  monogamy  and  the  equal  rights 
of  the  wife.  The  father’s  right  over  his  children  is 
limited  and  controlled  by  society,  whence  child-murder 
is  prohibited,  and  the  State  compels  parents  to  provide 
for  the  training  and  education  of  their  children.  Labour 
and  chastity  are  recognised  as  moral  and  religious  duties, 
and  the  relation  of  the  civil  power  to  its  subjects  as 
consecrated  by  religion,  so  that  obedience  to  law,  and 
lawful  authority  as  ordained  by  God,  becomes  a duty, 


Duty  to  the  Heathen  and  its  Hindrance.  2 5 

as  it  is  also  a duty  for  authority  to  keep  within  lawful 
limits,  without  arbitrary  caprice  or  tyranny. 

It  is  the  contrary  of  these  ideas  and  conditions  which 
meets  us  everywhere  in  the  non-Christian  world, 
whether  Buddhist,  Brahminical,  or  Mahometan.  Above 
all,  there  is  everywhere  child-murder,  especially  of 
female  children,  and  that  too  practised  by  the  mothers 
themselves.  The  woman  is  a being  of  lower  grade,  so 
that  throughout  the  East  it  is  commonly  supposed  that 
only  men  have  souls,  and  accordingly  women  are  op- 
pressed, maltreated,  shut  out  from  all  means  of  educa- 
tion, bought  and  sold  like  merchandise,  and  surrendered 
to  the  arbitrary  caprice  of  men  like  slaves  or  beasts  of 
burden ; and  thence  comes  the  system  of  polygamy, 
so  fatal  wherever  it  is  tolerated,  and  the  dissolution  of 
family  life  which  is  inseparable  from  it.  Everywhere, 
too,  a disesteem  of  human  life  prevails,  which  is  often 
wantonly  lavished  to  a frightful  extent. 

It  is  an  oppressive  thought  that  from  four  to  five 
hundred  millions  belong  to  a religion  like  the  Buddhist, 
which  connects  with  the  doctrine  of  transmigration  of 
souls  that  of  the  “ Nirvana,”  holding  forth  to  man  as 
his  supreme  end  a condition  of  passive  and  otiose 
unconsciousness,  and  commending  to  him,  as  the  truest 


2 6 Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

and  highest  virtue,  the  negation  of  activity,  will,  desire, 
or  thought.  And  where  Buddhism  ends  Brahminism 
begins,  in  whose  meshes  are  held  between  130  and  140 
million  Hindus.  Here  we  have  a gross  Pantheism, 
with  a worship  that  takes  the  form  of  the  most  indis- 
criminate idolatry ; the  crudest  arrogance  and  pre- 
sumption in  the  Brahmins,  combined  with  the  utmost 
contempt  of  man  in  the  case  of  the  lower  castes.  A 
cow  is  more  honoured  than  a Sudra,  and  a Pariah 
can  be  murdered  with  impunity ; there  are  no  rights 
of  man,  but  only  of  caste. 

And  now  let  us  take  a glance  at  those  nations 
whose  position  in  the  world  entails  on  them  the 
care  of  the  portion  of  mankind  which  stands  in 
grievous  need  of  help.  There  is  England,  whose 
empire  on  the  Ganges  has  been  established  for  a cen- 
tury, and  now  embraces  all  Hindustan,  which  on  the 
whole  rules  with  a wisdom,  justice,  and  clemency  of 
which  history  records  few  examples.  There  is  Eussia, 
whose  giant  arms  embrace  the  whole  of  Horthem, 
Western,  and  Eastern  Asia ; and  France,  to  which 
Northern  Africa  belongs.  And  what  happened  to  Eng- 
land in  the  East  Indies  is  happening  to  both  of  them  : 
they  will  be  driven  on  from  conquest  to  conquest. 


Duty  to  the  Heathen  and  its  Hindrance.  2 7 

Eussia  especially  cannot  stand  still ; she  must  become 
more  and  more  the  arbiter  of  tbe  destiny  of  ISTortb  and 
Middle  Asia.  Does  sbe  possess  tbe  capacities  for  doing 
justice  to  tbis  mission,  tbe  greatest  and  most  difficult 
wbicb  can  be  imposed  on  any  nation  or  state  ? England 
bas  proved  ber  capacity ; Eussia  is  still  at  tbe  begin- 
ning of  tbe  great  work  assigned  to  ber,  and  bas  to  show 
that  sbe  is  equal  to  tbe  task,  and  understands  not  only 
bow  to  conquer,  but  bow  to  rule  and  civiEze.  Is  it 
not  above  all  requisite  that  tbe  Eussian  Cburcb  sboffid 
recognise  in  tbe  overwhelming  duties  which  are  more 
and  more  pressing  upon  ber  every  day,  a motive  for 
abandoning  her  old  exclusiveness,  and  seeking,  through 
union  with  other  Churches,  a renewal  of  ber  spirit  and 
vigour,  and  greater  versatility  of  powers  ? 

England  bas  bestowed  on  ber  Hindu  subjects, 
late  indeed,  and  in  larger  measure  and  more  liberal 
sense  since  1829,  all  the  privileges  of  her  own  higher 
culture  and  civil  order,  so  far  as  tbe  people  are  capable 
of  receiving  them  ; there  are  now  numerous  universities 
and  schools  of  every  sort  there,  widow-burning  and 
exposure  of  children  is  forbidden,  the  administration 
of  justice  is  organized,  the  exclusiveness  of  castes  will 
not  be  able  to  bold  its  ground  much  longer,  countless 


28  Reunion  of  the  CJmrches. 

newspapers  and  magazines  find  a large  circle  of  readers. 
But  all  this  will  not  suffice  to  give  the  millions  of  India 
•wfiat  they  chiefly  need — a great  moral  purification  and 
improvement.  The  inspiring  breath  of  religion  can  alone 
effect  that.  The  Christian  missions  there  have  accom- 
plished very  little  in  proportion  to  their  efforts  and  the 
greatness  of  their  task,  and  have  scarcely  stirred  the 
surface  of  the  vast  slough  of  heathenism.  Not  only 
in  Hindustan ; the  three  hundred  years  of  Catholic 
and  the  fifty  years  of  Protestant  missions  are  rich  in 
examples  of  admirable  devotion,  persevering  energy, 
and  heroic  self-sacrifice ; noble  martyr  blood  has 
flowed  in  streams,  and  flows  stiff  every  year.  But 
when  we  ask  for  the  result  of  so  many  sacrifices,  and 
so  vast  an  apparatus,  we  are  disappointed,  and  can 
hardly  help  feeling  that  the  distinguished  powers  which 
would  have  produced  such  rich  fruits  at  home  have 
been  wasted  abroad  on  sterile  soil.  It  is  true  that 
many  Indian  tribes,  whose  conversion  seemed  finally 
achieved,  have  died  out  and  left  no  trace,  in  spite  of 
their  Christianity.  The  once  flourishing  missions  of 
the  Jesuits  in  North  America  and  Paraguay  have  long 
since  expired.  Even  among  the  cultivated  races  of 
India,  in  Camboja,  Siam,  and  Burmah,  only  a few 


Duty  to  the  Heathen  and  its  Hindrance.  29 

thousand  converts  have  been  won  by  the  missionary 
labour  of  above  a thousand  years ; and,  moreover,  the 
Indian  Christians  have  the  reputation  of  getting  bap- 
tized for  interested  motives,  and  easily  falling  away. 
It  is, 'above  all,  one  of  the  rarest  things  to  find  a per- 
manent settlement  of  heathen  converts  with  a native 
priesthood.  As  to  the  Protestant  missions,  their  own 
friends  admit  that  only  a tiny  fraction  of  the  heathen 
population  has  as  yet  been,  I do  not  say  actually  con- 
verted, but  even  prepared  for  conversion,  and  that  if 
the  apparatus  and  energies  employed  are  measured  by 
the  results,  an  unfavourable  judgment  must  be  formed 
of  the  missionary  work  altogether. 

Our  surprise  is  diminished  when  we  discover,  on 
looking  into  the  narratives  of  missionaries  and  travellers, 
how  the  European  Christians  carry  with  them  every- 
where their  divisions  and  sectarian  spirit ; how,  for 
instance,  in  East  India,  twenty  different  churches  and 
sects  are  labouring  at  the  conversion  of  the  Hindus, 
each  endeavouring  to  encroach  upon  the  rest,  destroy 
their  settlements,  and  gain  over  their  proselytes.  And 
what  is  true  there  is  true  equally  elsewhere,  so  that 
Christianity  presents  itself  to  the  intelligent  heathen 
under  the  repulsive  aspect  of  division  and  uncertainty. 


30  Reunioyi  of  the  Churches. 

In  Tahiti,  the  French  Government  years  ago  took  pos- 
session of  the  Protestant  missions  and  handed  them 
over  to  French  Catholic  emissaries.  We  know  how 
dear  this  arbitrary  procedure  cost  the  Government  of 
Louis  Philippe,  on  accoimt  of  the  pecuniary  indemnifi- 
cation paid  to  the  English  missionary  Pritchard,  which 
was  so  cried  out  against  in  France.  In  Madagascar, 
the  emissaries  of  the  rival  Churches,  Catholic  and  Pro- 
testant, brought  matters  to  such  a pass  that  King 
Eadema  oscillated  for  a year  between  them,  and  when 
he  was  murdered  each  party  charged  the  other  with  the 
crime,  and  the  mutual  hatred  and  endeavours  to  sup- 
plant one  another  stiU  continue.  In  1845  the  Pro- 
testant missionaries  were  ejected  from  Fernando  Po  by 
the  Spaniards,  who  laid  claim  to  the  island.  That  is 
the  spectacle  presented  by  Christians  to  the  gaze  of  the 
heathen  world.  Christ  says  that  every  kingdom  divided 
against  itself  shall  be  destroyed.  We  understand  the 
failure  of  missionaries.  And  that  is  not  all.  What 
is  to  Christians  the  holiest  and  most  venerable  of  aU 
places,  the  birth-land  of  our  faith,  where  Christ  taught, 
lived,  and  suffered,  is  now  the  meeting-place  of  Churches 
that  hate  one  another.  Greeks,  Eussians,  Latins,  Arme- 
nians, Copts,  Jacobites,  Protestants  of  various  sects,  aU 


D2ity  to  the  Heathen  and  its  Hindrance.  3 1 

have  there  their  fortresses  and  entrenchments,  and  are 
intent  on  making  fresh  conquests  for  the  rival  Churches. 
To  the  shame  of  the  Christian  name,  Turkish  soldiers 
have  to  interfere  between  rival  parties  of  Christians, 
who  would  else  tear  one  another  to  pieces  in  the  holy 
places,  and  the  Pasha  holds  the  key  of  the  Holy 
Sepulchre.  The  strife  between  Latins  and  Greeks  for 
the  possession  of  the  chapel  in  1852  was  the  imme- 
diate occasion  of  the  Crimean  war. 

Truly  every  one  who  values  the  name  of  Christian 
should  daily  pray  to  God  for  a fresh  outpouring  of  the 
Spirit  of  Unity,  that  we  may  keep  a new  Pentecost  of 
enlightenment,  peace,  and  brotherly  love. 


LECTUEE  III. 


DIVISION  OF  EAST  AND  WEST  : GROUNDS  OF  HOPE. 


HEN  we  speak  of  the  hopes  of  reunion  of  sepa- 


rated Churches,  it  is  obvious  that  the  first  point 


to  he  thought  of  is  to  prepare  the  way  for  a better 
understanding,  for  taking  counsel  together,  and  for  dis- 
covering eirenic  explanations  of  the  existing  confessions 
of  faith.  The  first  thing  is  to  distinguish  dogma  from 
opinion,  traditional  doctrine  from  the  artificial  products 
of  theology,  use  from  abuse,  to  remove  well-grounded 
causes  of  scandal,  and  to  restore  what  has  become  cor- 
rupted to  its  original  form.  Two  divided  Churches  can- 
not rush  at  once  into  each  other’s  arms,  like  two  friends 
meeting  after  a long  separatioru  And  we  see  what 
infiuite  difficulty  a single  difference  in  doctrine  may 
occasion,  and  how  it  may  frustrate  the  most  various 
and  well-meant  endeavours,  in  the  separation  of  the 
Lutheran  and  Eeformed  Churches,  which  is  not  yet 


82 


Division  of  East  and  West. 


33 


by  any  means  wholly  got  rid  of,  notwithstanding  the 
grand  union  between  them.^  There  is  needed  a power- 
ful and  dominant  spirit  of  union,  such  as  is  not  often 
found  in  the  course  of  centuries,  and  a common  con- 
trolling principle  independent  of  individual  caprice. 
Above  all,  the  union  of  Chm’ches  is  only  then  possible, 
when  a high  measure  of  mental  cultuT-e  is  found  in 
connexion  with  religious  intelligence  and  zeal.  From 
a lower  intellectual  standpoint  differences  of  rite  and 
ceremonial  are  regarded  as  questions  on  which  salva- 
tion hinges,  and  instead  of  quiet  and  peaceful  inquiry 
men  rush  to  arms.  Among  Mahometans  almost  all 
differences  have  been  decided  by  the  sword,  the  restora- 
tion of  unity  meant  the  conquest  and  extermination 
of  a sect ; and  thus  religious  wars  have  lasted  for 
centuries  among  them  down  to  quite  recent  times. 
Among  Christians  religious  wars  have  been  chiefly 
carried  on  when  great  moral  corruption  turned  religious 
zeal  into  fanaticism,  as  in  the  Albigensian  wars  in  the 
south  of  France,  and  the  later  contests  there  between 
Protestants  and  Catholics. 

1 [The  Lutheran  and  Reformed  (or  Calvinistic)  Churches  of  Germany  were 
united  by  Frederick-William  ill.  of  Prussia  in  1817,  under  the  name  of  the 
“ Evangelical  Church  ” {Evangelische  Kirche),  which  is  still  the  Protestant 
State  Church.  Bttt  the  union  was  only  partially  successful.  See  Kium- 
macher’s  Autobiography,  pp.  95,  96.] 

C 


34 


Reunio7i  of  the  Churches. 


If  we  look  round  among  the  nations  to  see  where 
there  is  any  disposition  to  take  part  in  the  work  of 
pacification,  we  must  put  aside  the  Eomance  nations, 
Spanish,  Italian,  and  even  French,  partly  on  account 
of  their  religious  indifference,  partly  because  of  their 
exclusive  devotion  to  political  questions  and  interests  ; 
and  because  too  they  do  not  feel  the  sting  of  separation, 
from  belonging  entirely,  or  almost  entirely,  to  one 
Church.  Nor  can  we  look  to  North  America,  where  the 
s/  sectarian  spirit  is  still  in  fuU  bloom,  and  the  passion 
for  division  is  so  widely  spread.  With  the  Slavonic 
peoples  the  national  sentiment  is  just  now  prepon- 
derant, and  forces  higher  religious  considerations  into 
the  background.  There  remain  England  and  Germany. 

In  England  the  friends  of  union  are  a numerous  and 
daily  increasing  body.  The  whole  movement  of  the 
Oxford  school,  which  has  been  advancing  for  the  last 
thirty-five  years — what  used  to  be  called  “ Puseyism,” 
and  is  now  called  “ Eitualism  ” — is  essentially,  and 
for  the  most  part  consciously,  directed  to  union  with 
the  Western  Catholic  and  the  Eastern  Churches.^ 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  sharply  defined  Protestant 

1 For  some  years  past  [since  186.3]  a magazine  expressly  devoted  to  tMs 
object  has  been  published  in'  England, — the  Union  Review. 


Division  of  East  and  West. 


35 

spirit  and  antipathy  as  well  to  Eome  as  to  everything, 
whether  in  creed  or  ritual,  that  exceeds  the  hare  letter 
of  Scripture,  is  nowhere  more  deeply  rooted  in  the 
popular  mind  than  in  England.  This  Calvinistic  spirit, 
as  it  may  well  be  termed,  is  peculiarly  powerful  in  the 
great  communities  of  Baptists,  Congregationalists,  and 
Wesleyans,  and  reacts  from  them  on  the  members  of 
the  Established  Church.  And  there  must  be  a funda- 
mental change  in  the  condition  of  the  Established 
Church  itself,  if  it  means  to  deal  with  the  question  of 
union  in  earnest ; it  must  abandon  its  position  as  a 
State  Church,  which  makes  it  at  once  too  narrow  and 
too  broad,  too  lax  and  too  stiff,  too  free  in  one  sense 
and  too  dependent  in  another. 

And  so  we  come  to  Germany.  In  the  German 
Empire  the  Catholics  now  form  one-third,  the  Pro- 
testants two-thirds  of  the  population.  If  we  count  the 
Austrian  provinces,  the  two  Churches  are  about  equal 
in  numbers.  This  situation  is  peculiar  to  us  Germans 
among  all  nations.  Only  the  two  great  neighbouring 
countries  of  Holland  and  Switzerland  exhibit  a some- 
what similar  phenomenon.  In  every  other  nation  one 
Church,  whether  Eoman  Catholic,  Greek  Catholic,  or 
Protestant,  immensely  preponderates,  if  it  does  not 


36  Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

prevail  alone.  But  we  have  suffered  so  unspeakably 
from  this  religious  division,  which  pierces  through  the 
body  of  the  nation  Like  a sharp  sword,  and  our  weak- 
ness, dismemberment,  and  humiliation,  stand  in  such 
close  relation  of  caiise  and  effect  to  our  division  of 
Churches,  that  the  belief  is  constantly  forcing  itself  on 
every  German  familiar  with  the  history  of  his  country, 
that  where  the  religious  split  began  and  the  schism 
originated,  there  the  reconciliation  must  follow,  and  the 
division  must  lead  to  a higher  and  better  unity.  That 
would  be  the  tragical  expiation  in  the  great  drama  of 
our  history. 

Meanwhile  the  numerical  proportion  of  the  members 
of  different  Churches  is  not  the  main  point.  Far  more 
important  is  the  relative  proportion  of  powers  and 
capabilities  which  can  neither  be  counted  nor  weighed ; 
and  this  leads  to  the  observation  that  in  Germany  the 
overwhelming  preponderance,  or  rather  domination,  in 
science  and  literature,  is  on  the  Protestant  side.  Our 
helles-lettres,  and  nearly  all  our  scientific  literature,  if 
we  except  some  medical  works,  is  almost  entirely  Pro- 
testant. In  theology  especially  the  disproportion  is  so 
great  that  the  Protestant  theology  is  at  least  six  times 
richer  than  the  Catholic  in  quantity  and  quality.  The 


Division  of  East  and  West.  3 7 

main  cause  of  this  is  unquestionably  to  be  found  in 
the  former  condition  of  the  Catholic  schools  and  uni- 
versities; in  the  oppressive  Latin  influence,  fatal  to 
intellectual  life,  which  lay  like  a dead  weight  on  the 
culture  and  education  of  Catholic  countries,  and  the 
defective  character  of  the  schools  intrusted  to  a foreign 
and  essentially  un-German  Order,  which  through  its  sys- 
tematic neglect  and  contempt  of  the  German  language, 
its  inadequate  classical  teaching  and  its  formal  method, 
faded  to  implant  in  its  scholars  either  the  capacity  or 
the  materials  of  thought,  either  style  or  power  of  expres- 
sion, thirst  for  knowledge,  or  perseverance  in  seeking  it. 
For  two  centuries  and  a half  this  state  of  things  con- 
tinued, and  its  consequences  are  still  constantly  felt. 
However,  for  the  object  we  are  now  considering,  the 
reconcdiation  of  the  Churches,  this  inferiority  of  one 
side  might  teU  favourably,  and  almost  be  reckoned  a 
gain.  For  when  the  end  in  view  is  to  unite  those 
who  are  divided,  it  is  essential  that  at  least  one  party 
should  be  conscious  of  its  own  deficiencies,  and  desirous 
of  shariug  the  benefits  and  privdeges  of  the  other. 

The  present  state  of  things  in  Germany  is  this : Catho- 
lics and  Protestants  are  united  by  community  of  speech, 
literature,  manners,  laws,  and  administration  of  justice, 


38  Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

— by  everything,  in  short,  which  binds  men  together, — 
while  the  gulf  between  them  in  Church  matters  is  far 
wider  than  that  which  separates  Catholics  from  members 
of  the  Eusso-Greek  Church.  The  Protestants  have  often 
wished  and  sought  for  reunion  with  the  Catholic  Church 
of  the  West;  but  there  has  been  only  one  attempt  on 
their  part,  almost  immediately  abandoned,  to  come  to 
an  understanding  with  the  Eastern  Church,  when,  in 
1575,  the  Tubingen  theologians  entered  into  negotia- 
tions with  Jeremiah,  Patriarch  of  Constantinople.  But 
a comparison  of  their  respective  confessions  then  led 
both  parties  to  the  conclusion  that  the  doctrinal  and 
ecclesiastical  differences  were  too  great  for  any  union 
to  be  effected.  hTor  could  even  the  transfer  of  the 
Protestant  Baltic  provinces  and  their  university  to 
Eussia  produce  any  change  in  this  cool,  self-sufficient, 
and  exclusive  way  of  looking  at  the  question.  But 
this  cannot  continue,  and  it  is  certainly  indispensable 
for  members  of  the  Latin  Catholic  Church,  as  soon  as 
they  enter  into  conciliatory  negotiations  with  Protes- 
tants, never  to  act  without  reference  to  the  Eastern 
Church,  or,  still  better,  in  concert  with  its  members ; 
or  else  the  attempt  to  bridge  over  one  chasm  might  help 
to  widen  and  deepen  another  no  less  deplorable  and 


Division  of  East  and  West. 


39 


displeasing  to  God.  And  to  leave  out  the  English 
Church  from  our  attempts  would  he  to  drop  a link  no 
less  indispensable  than  precious  in  the  chain  we  are 
seeking  to  reunite. 

But  we  cannot  undertake  the  healing  of  a schism 
without  first  having  a clear  view  of  its  original  causes 
and  subsequent  course.  Let  us  hegiu  with  the  older 
split.  How  and  why  was  the  Christian  East  divided 
from  the  West  ? 

In  the  earlier  centuries  the  distinction  of  Eastern 
and  Western  Churches  simply  meant  a distinction  in 
geographical  site  and  language,  and  hence  later  on  they 
came  often  to  be  called  the  Greek  and  Latin  Church. 
As  Christianity  passed  from  East  to  West,  all  Christian 
documents  and  writings  were  for  a long  time — till 
towards  the  end  of  the  second  century — composed  in 
Greek  only,  and  even  in  Eome  the  Greek  language 
prevailed  for  a considerable  time  among  Christians. 
Thus  did  the  Eastern  portion  of  the  Church  for  a long 
time  enjoy  a complete  intellectual  superiority ; the 
Westerns  had  to  learn  from  their  Greek  co-religionists, 
and  to  receive  from  them  their  ecclesiastical  and 
theological  education.  All  Latin  theological  literature 
before  St.  Augustine  is  in  substance  the  application  or 


40  Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

imitation  of  Greek  models.  From  tlie  fourth  century 
the  Bishop  of  Constantinople  advanced  more  and  more 
to  the  headship  of  the  whole  Eastern  Church ; and  the 
strength,  life,  and  learning  of  the  Church  became  more 
and  more  concentrated  in  this  imperial  metropolis. 
Borne  vainly  sought  to  reduce  the  dignity  of  the 
Bishops  and  Patriarchs  of  New  Borne,  as  it  was  called ; 
it  was  too  completely  involved  in  the  circumstances  of 
the  Greek  Empire,  and  too  well  adapted  to  the  needs 
of  the  Eastern  countries  and  Churches,  and  became  so 
indispensable  when  the  other  great  Sees  of  Alexandria, 
Antioch,  and  Jerusalem  had  fallen  under  Moslem 
dominion,  and  their  Churches  were  gradually  disappear- 
ing. After  the  northern  migration  each  Church  went 
its  own  way ; the  union  between  Borne  and  Constan- 
tinople, often  interrupted  by  quarrels,  was  always 
restored  after  a longer  or  shorter  interval,  but  the 
alienation  increased.  The  other  Western  Chm’ches 
in  Italy,  France,  England,  Spain,  and  Germany  had  no 
dhect  relations  with  the  East.  The  establishment  of 
the  Carlovingian  and  afterwards  of  the  German  Empire, 
was  regarded  at  Constantinople  as  an  usurpation  and 
violation  of  the  rights  of  what  claimed  to  be  the  sole 
legitimate  representative  of  the  ancient  Boman  Empire. 


Division  of  East  and  West.  4 1 

]\Ioreover,  many  Eoman  rites  began  more  and  more  to 
vary  from  the  Eastern  form,  as  in  the  use  of  unleavened 
bread  in  the  Eucharist,  and  afterwards  in  the  with- 
drawal of  the  chalice,  and  disuse  of  immersion  in 
Baptism.  The  most  important  point  of  difference  was 
the  addition  of  Filiogue  to  the  common  creed,  forced 
by  the  Franks  on  Eome  after  long  resistance,  whence 
sprang  the  controversy  about  the  Procession  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  which  has  lasted  to  this  day. 

Yet  it  was  not  till  quite  the  middle  of  the  tweKth 
century,  notwithstanding  aU  the  soreness  and  growing 
alienation  on  both  sides,  that  communion  between  the 
Churches  was  broken  off.  But  the  Crusades,  the  acts 
of  violence  perpetrated  by  the  Latins  who  often  be- 
haved insolently  to  the  weaker  Greeks,  and  above  all 
the  new  system  of  papal  absolutism,  to  which  even 
the  Byzantine  Emperors  were  now  expected  to  suc- 
cumb, aU  conspired  to  make  a public  and  complete 
breach  inevitable.  Then,  in  1204,  a crusading  army 
conquered  Constantinople  and  the  greatest  part  of  the 
Empire,  and  established  a Latin  Empire  there,  which 
the  Popes  took  under  their  guidance  and  protection. 
The  whole  Eastern  Church  was  to  be  Latinized,  and  a 
complete  system  of  ecclesiastico-political  tyranny  was 


42  Reunion  of  the  Chtirches. 

organized — a yoke  which  seemed  utterly  intolerable  to 
the  Greeks,  and  produced  a deep  hatred  against  the 
Westerns,  especially  against  Eome,  that  survived  for 
centuries.  The  seizure  and  sacking  of  the  capital 
followed,  with  circumstances  of  horrible  atrocity  and 
profanation  of  churches,  and  then  the  split  both  in 
feeling  and  in  fact  was  consummated ; — in  fact,  by 
Innocent  ill.  arbitrarily  imposing  Latin  Bishops  on  the 
Greek  Churches,  and  thereby  declaring  all  Easterns 
heretics  and  schismatics.  Within  sixty  years  (in  1261) 
the  Latin  Empire  again  fell,  and  with  it  fell  the 
violently  imposed  Latin  hierarchy.  But  the  restored 
Greek  Empire  was  weak  and  imperilled.  The  hostility 
of  the  West,  especially  of  the  Popes,  had  to  be  bought 
off  at  any  price ; and  so  the  Emperor  let  Pope 
Gregory  arrange  the  terms  of  union  as  he  pleased  at 
the  Council  of  Lyons  in  1274.  But  to  carry  it  out  was 
impossible  in  the  face  of  universal  opposition,  and  with 
the  Emperor’s  death  the  work  fell  to  pieces.  A new 
union  was  effected  a hundred  and  sixty  years  later  at 
Florence,  which  again  was  simply  a work  of  necessity 
and  compulsion.  The  Empire  had  fallen,  with  the 
exception  of  the  capital ; all  else  was  in  the  hands  of 
the  Turks,  who  were  preparing  to  strike  the  last  blow. 


Division  of  East  and  West.  43 

and  it  was  thought  that  the  Pope  alone,  through  his 
wealth  and  authority  in  the  West,  could  avert  it.  After 
long  negotiations,  in  which  the  Pope  and  his  theologians 
yielded  something,  and  the  Greeks,  under  compulsion  of 
their  Emperor,  reluctantly  and  insincerely  submitted  to 
the  conditions  imposed,  the  decree  of  union  was  drawn 
up,  which  has  since  then  continued  to  be  the  test 
required  by  Pome  of  aU  Orientals  and  Piussians  coming 
into  her  communion.  But  as  the  Greeks  had  only 
submitted  under  stress  of  necessity,  the  work  fell  to 
pieces  in  the  next  few  years,  and  two  Greek  Councils 
condemned  the  Florentine  decrees. 

Already,  from  the  thirteenth  century,  the  conviction 
had  been  gaining  ground,  both  in  East  and  West,  that 
the  great  hindrance  to  union  lay  not  in  theological 
and  ceremonial  differences,  but  in  the  Eoman  claims  to 
dominion  over  Church  and  State.  The  Greek  Church, 
relying  on  its  tradition  and  rich  ecclesiastical  literature, 
and  clinging  tenaciously  to  all  that  had  been  established 
at  the  time  of  the  great  movements  and  definitions  of 
the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries,  was  suddenly  called 
upon,  in  the  thirteenth,  fifteenth,  and  sixteenth,  to 
accept  a form  of  absolute  monarchical  Church-govern- 
ment for  which  there  was  no  precedent  or  evidence 


44  Reu7iion  of  the  Ckttrches. 

in  its  former  history  and  literature,  which  had  heen 
developed  in  the  West  first  in  the  ninth  and  then  in 
the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries,  and  there  only  on 
the  strength  of  a long  series  of  forgeries  and  inventions, 
by  which  the  Western  clergy  had  been  deceived.  The 
same  means  were  now  of  course  employed  for  circum- 
venting the  Greeks.  In  Councils,  in  conferences,  and 
in  writings  used  against  them,  they  were  met  with  the 
same  forged  authorities,  or  with  others  constructed  for 
their  special  benefit;  but  then  the  attempt  proved 
generally  a failure,  for  the  learned  Greeks,  of  whom 
there  were  always  a considerable  body,  were  too  well 
informed  and  too  familiar  with  the  views  of  the  ancient 
Church.  The  only  result  of  such  attempts  was  an 
increased  mistrust  on  the  side  of  the  Greeks,  who  got 
accustomed  to  reject  every  overture  suspiciously,  as  an 
attack  on  the  freedom  of  the  Eastern  Church  and  its 
loyal  adherence  to  the  traditional  deposit. 

But  meanwhile  the  great  and  growing  Eussian 
Empire  had  become  the  centre  of  Greek  Christianity, 
and  the  daughter  Church  of  Eussia  left  a mere  hono- 
rary primacy,  without  real  power,  to  the  mother 
Church  on  the  Bosphorus  and  its  Patriarch.  For 
132  years,  from  1588  to  1720,  Eussia  had  a Patri- 


Division  of  East  and  West. 


45 


arch  of  her  own.^  But  in  all  points  of  doctrine  and 
usage  the  Greek  type  was  preserved  unchanged.  Just 
at  the  time  of  the  erection  of  the  Patriarchate  began 
also  the  efforts  of  Borne  and  the  Jesuits  to  bring 
about  an  union  of  the  Churches  in  Poland,  which 
then  still  included  whole  districts  belonging  to  the 
Greek  rite,  in  Lithuania  and  in  Eussia.  In  Poland 
and  Lithuania  the  attempt  succeeded  by  means  of  the 
Bishops  taken  from  noble  Polish  families.  As  all 
the  externals  of  worship  were  left  unchanged,  and 
the  question  of  the  Filioque  was  unintelligible  both  to 
people  and  clergy,  the  union  simply  consisted  in  throw- 
ing off  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  and  submitting 
to  the  Pope.  All  this,  however,  was  the  work  of  force 
and  intrigue,  dictated  by  motives  of  policy  and  ambi- 
tion. The  Lithuanians  were  to  be  completely  separated 
from  the  Muscovite  Empire,  to  which  they  were  bound 
by  ties  both  of  race  and  religion.  The  antagonism 
between  Eussia,  which  was  constantly  advancing,  and 
Poland,  which  was  constantly  growing  weaker  and  more 

^ [By  an  ukase  of  January  25,  1721,  Peter  tlie  Great  akolisked  the  Patri- 
archate of  Moscow,  which  had  been  established  with  the  consent  of  the 
four  Eastern  Patriarchs,  and  substituted  the  “ Most  Holy  Governing 
Synod  ” — the  composition  of  which  has  been  subsequently  changed  more 
than  once— as  the  supreme  authority  in  the  Kussian  Church.  To  this 
change  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  assented  two  years  afterwards.] 


46  Reunio7i  of  the  Churches. 

anarchical,  has  shaped  the  whole  Church-history  of  the 
Slavonic  world  from  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury to  this  day.  The  attempt  of  the  Poles  to  seat  two 
impostors  (the  false  Demetriuses)  side  by  side  on  the 
Eussian  throne  sprang  from  the  same  origin ; they  were 
to  subjugate  the  Eussian  Church  to  the  Pope.  The 
only  result  attained,  after  many  persecutions  and  acts 
of  sanguinary  violence,  was  the  internal  split  of  the 
Polish  nation.  The  nobles  and  higher  clergy  remained 
Uniate  or  Latin,  while  the  people  and  the  lower 
clergy  were  Greek,  or  at  least  ready  and  inclined  to 
return  to  the  Eussian  or  separate  Greek  Church. 
These  unionist  efforts  conducted  by  the  Jesuits,  with 
their  brutal  tyranny,  have  had  unforeseen  consequences 
of  world-wide  import.  They  have  led  at  once  to  the 
aggrandizement  of  Eussia  and  the  downfall  of  Poland ; 
to  the  first,  by  inspiring  the  Eussian  people  with  that 
crusading  spirit  or  proud  national  feeling  of  “ the  world 
against  us  and  we  against  the  world,”  which  taught 
them  to  regard  every  foreign  war  as  a war  of  religion ; 
to  the  dissolution  of  Poland,  because  its  religious 
divisions  could  not  be  healed,  nor  yet  be  pacified  by 
the  establishment  of  civil  equality.  Besides  the  system 
of  elective  monarchy  and  the  anarchy  and  venality  of 


Division  of  East  and  West.  47 

its  nobles,  the  chief  cause  of  the  destruction  of  Poland 
was  religious  dissent  and  the  intervention  of  Eussia, 
when  appealed  to  for  the  protection  of  its  co-reli- 
gionists. From  the  time  of  Peter  the  Great  Poland 
was  dependent  on  the  will  of  the  Czar,  and  yet  it  pro- 
ceeded with  an  incomprehensible  blindness  to  exclude 
its  numerous  non-Catholic  citizens  from  all  offices  and 
posts,  and  to  oppress  them  in  other  ways.  A long 
series  of  religious  wars,  always  carried  on  with  horrible 
cruelty,  extends  through  the  later  history  of  Poland, 
even  over  the  first  partition. 

The  aggrandizement  of  Eussia  since  the  middle  of 
the  seventeenth  century  had  been  mainly  due  to  the 
Czars  undertaking  the  charge  of  their  foreign  co-reli- 
gionists and  seeking  to  draw  them  over  to  themselves. 
Catherine  n.  wished  to  reap  the  harvest  sown  by  her 
predecessors  during  the  last  130  years,  and  incorporate 
Poland,  where  it  was  possible,  with  the  Eussian  Em- 
pire. By  the  two  partitions  of  1772  and  1793,  she  had 
placed  whole  dioceses  of  the  Uniate  Church,  including 
two  in  Galicia,  and  in  1796  several  millions  of  TJniates, 
under  Eussian  rule.  From  that  time  forward  it  became 
a fixed  aim  of  Eussian  policy  to  abolish  the  union,  and 
I to  bring  back  these  millions — sometimes  by  gentle 


48  Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

means,  where  necessary  by  violence — into  the  bosom  of 
the  Greek  Church.  The  higher  Polish  clergy  with  the 
Jesuits  had  paved  the  way  for  this,  by  drawing  over  the 
nobility  to  the  Latin  rite  against  the  former  agreement, 
so  that  the  people  who  had  remained  true  to  the  Greek 
rite  felt  alienated  from  them  even  in  religious  matters. 
The  clergy  themselves  had  often  Latinized,  and  thereby 
increased  the  confusion  and  division.  And  so  it  was 
easy  for  the  Eussian  government  to  dissolve  the  union 
in  this  kingdom  divided  against  itself.  The  method 
adopted  was  to  leave  the  people  to  choose  whether  to 
remain  Latins  or  to  return  to  the  “Mother  Church.” 
They  almost  always  chose  the  latter.  Under  the  Czar 
Nicholas,  up  to  1839,  there  were  two  million  Uniates 
in  Eussia,  hut  by  an  ukase  of  March  25  that  year, 
they  also  were  brought  over  to  the  national  Church. 
And  so  at  last  of  the  great  Uniate  Church  of  the  north, 
which  once  contained  several  millions,  there  is  nothing 
left  but  a few  poor  fragments  in  the  diocese  of  Ohelm. 
And  Catherine  understood  well  enough  to  whom  she 
owed  her  chief  successes  in  Poland ; when  Clement  xiv. 
suppressed  the  Jesuit  Order,^  she  received  them  grate- 

1 [The  Jesuit  Order  was  suppressed  by  Clement  xiv.  (Ganganelli)  in 
1773,  and  restored  by  Pius  vii.  in  1814,  when  some  of  its  older  members 
were  still  alive.^ 


Division  of  East  and  West. 


49 


fully  as  educators  of  the  Polish  nohUity  and  counsellors 
of  the  Kings  and  Bishops  who  had  played  so  effectively 
into  the  hands  of  Eussia.  By  her  command  the  Order 
with  its  revenues  continued  to  exist  in  her  dominions. 

The  long  history  of  this  union,  this  ecclesiastical 
tragedy,  which  had  its  beginning,  middle,  and  end  in 
violence,  persecution,  oppression,  and  bloodshed,  and 
closed  with  the  destruction  of  a once  mighty  kingdom, 
teaches  us  how  a union  of  divided  Churches  is  not  to 
be  effected. 

In  Galicia,  South  Hungary,  and  Transylvania,  there 
are  stiU.  Uniate  Churches,  including  together  two 
millions  and  a half  of  souls.  But  everywhere  the 
mixture  of  the  Eoman  and  Greek  rite,  or  the  super- 
seding of  the  latter  by  the  former,  which  a section  of 
the  clergy  are  always  aiming  at,  causes  disturbances 
and  perplexity  of  conscience,  and  endangers  the  continu- 
ance of  the  union. 

In  general,  the  Eastern  Church  has  remained  where 
it  was  when  the  two  halves  of  Christendom  were  still  in 
communion.  Since  then  it  has  been  disturbed  by  no 
important  doctrinal  controversies,  and  there  has  accord- 
ingly been  no  occasion  for  dogmatic  definitions.  Its 
theology  has  remained  thoroughly  patristic  and  tradi- 

D 


50  Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

tional,  keeping  to  the  writings  of  the  Fathers  up  to  the 
seventh  century,  and  practically  closing  with  St.  John 
of  Damascus  in  the  eighth,  while  the  theological  move- 
ment of  the  West  began  in  the  ninth,  culminated  with 
the  scholasticism  of  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  cen- 
turies, and  then  again  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
had  to  encounter  its  great  adversary,  the  Protestant 
doctrine  and  theology.  Even  in  the  twelfth  century, 
although  there  were  many  points  in  dispute  between 
Eome  and  Constantinople,  it  was  still  the  prevalent 
view  that  there  was  but  one  great  universal  Church, 
embracing  East  and  West  alike.  The  national  hatred 
was  great,  but  neither  side  dared  to  say  this,  “We  alone 
are  the  Catholic  Church,  and  you  are  excommunicated, 
apostate,  heretical.”  Both  sides  appealed  to  the  first 
seven  or  eight  (Ecumenical  Councils  and  their  decrees, 
and  held  that  fresh  decisions  binding  the  universal 
Church  could  only  be  enacted  at  such  another  Synod 
representing  both  East  and  West.  And  that  is  stiU 
the  belief  in  the  East  and  in  Eussia.  With  this  is 
connected  the  patriarchal  theory,  that  there  are  five 
Presidents  of  the  whole  Church,  four  in  the  East  and 
one  in  the  West,  namely,  the  Pope,  to  whom  belongs  the 
first  rank,  but  no  power  or  dominion  over  the  rest.  But 


Division  of  East  and  West.  5 1 

since  the  Pope  has  separated  himself  from  the  commu- 
nion of  the  rest,  and  put  forward  inadmissible  claims  to 
dominion,  his  place  has  been  taken  by  the  later  Patri- 
archate of  Moscow,  and  since  1720  by  the  Governing 
Synod  of  St.  Petersburg  which  superseded  it ; and  if 
any  controversy  concerning  the  whole  Church  required 
settlement,  it  would  be  referred  to  the  four  Oriental 
patriarchs,  and  decided  by  their  imanimous  verdict. 

Thus  it  was  that  before  1854  the  doctrinal  differ- 
ences between  East  and  West  were  very  slight,  but  the 
differences  in  Church  constitution,  ritual,  and  worship 
were  considerable. 

The  insertion  of  the  Filioque  in  the  Mcene  Creed  is 
an  offence  to  the  Orientals,  who  say  that  the  Latin 
Church  alone  had  no  right  to  make  it,  and  that  this 
ancient  symbol  must  be  maintained  in  the  precise  form 
fixed  by  the  OEcumenical  Councils.  The  Popes  allowed 
it  to  remain  without  the  addition  in  the  (Uniate) 
Eastern  Churches.  So  again  with  Purgatory.  All 
Oriental  Churches  rejected  the  notion  of  a purifying 
fire  after  death,  and  at  the  Council  of  Florence  the  Pope 
and  his  theologians  consented  to  its  being  abandoned  or 
left  an  open  question,  and  the  doctrine  of  the  Church 
confined  to  the  permission  or  recommendation  of  prayer 


52 


Reunion  of  the  Churches. 


for  the  dead.^  No  objection  was  ever  made  to  the  use 
of  the  chalice  in  the  East,  though  the  Popes  persistently 
refused  it  to  Western  nations,  or  withdrew  it  after  being 
once  conceded,  at  the  cost  of  rivers  of  blood  and  of 
the  strengthening  and  extension  of  Protestantism.  So 
again  with  the  marriage  of  priests.  The  universal 
custom  of  Eussia  and  the  East,  that  every  secular  priest 
should  marry  before  ordination,  v^as  never  assailed  by 
the  Popes,  nor  did  they  ever  require  the  introduction  of 
celibacy.  It  was  out  of  regard  for  the  Greek  Church 
that  at  the  Council  of  Trent  no  condemnation  was 
pronounced  on  divorce  for  adultery,  as  an  error,  and  the 
Council  contented  itself  with  vindicating  the  opposite 
practice  of  the  Latin  Church.^ 

As  regards  Baptism,  which  the  Orientals  perform  by 

1 [This  is  all  that  is  taught  authoritatively  now.  The  Council  of  Trent 
(Sess.  XXV.)  simply  defines  “ Purgatorium  esse,  animasque  ibi  detentas 
fidelium  siiffragiis,  potissimum  vero  acceptahili  altaris  sacrificio  juvari,” 
and  forbids  preachers  to  deal  with  subtle  and  difficult  questions,  which 
tend  rather  to  curiosity  and  superstition  than  to  edification.  Perrone,  the 
Jesuit  Professor  at  the  Roman  College  for  the  last  thirty  years,  says 
accordingly,  “ Duo  tantum  ah  Ecclesia  de  Purgatorio  definita  sunt,  ejus- 
dem  scilicet  existentia,  et  suffragiorum  utilitas  erga  defunctorum  animas. 
Omnia  proinde  quae  ad  locum,  tempus,  poenarum  naturam  et  acerbitatem 
spectant,  dogma  non  attingunt ; prout  nec  attingunt  quae  ad  modum  per- 
tinent, quo  defunctorum  animae  suffragiis  fidelium  adjuvantur. ’’—Prosieci. 
Theol.  Parisiis,  1854,  vol.  i.  pp.  478,  9.  The  Greek  Synod  of  Bethlehem, 
held  in  1672,  on  this,  as  on  other  points,  virtually  indorsed  the  teaching 
of  Trent.] 

2 [Divorce  a vinculo  is  not  however  allowed  among  the  Uniates.] 


Division  of  East  and  West. 


53 


immersion,  while  throughout  the  West,  both  Catholic 
and  Protestant,  affusion  only  is  used,  in  Constanti- 
nople it  was  for  some  time  the  custom  to  reject  Western 
baptism  and  rebaptize  converts.  In  Eussia,  also,  a 
Synod  held  in  1620,  under  the  Patriarch  Philaret,  pre- 
scribed this  rebaptism,  but  the  Philaret  of  our  own  day 
observes  that  it  was  an  order  not  to  be  justified  by  the 
doctrine  of  the  Church,  but  excusable  on  account  of 
the  crimes  of  the  age.^  Latterly  Constantinople  has 
foEowed  the  advice  of  St.  Petersburg,  and  abandoned 
the  practice  of  rebaptizing,  thereby  admitting  the 
vaKdity  of  Western  baptism. 

t 

Even  the  ofiicial  language  of  Eome  used  to  speak  not 
of  heresy  but  only  of  scliism,  which  had  come  to  be 
termed  the  Photian  Schism — an  unhistorical  designa- 
tion, for  Photius,  who  came  forward  in  the  ninth  cen- 
tury as  the  accuser  of  Eome  and  the  West,  did  not 
effect  any  separation,  and  the  mutual  recognition  and 
intercommunion  of  the  Churches  lasted  two  centuries 
longer.  Indeed,  as  late  as  1583,  Pope  Gregory  xiii. 
addressed  a friendly  letter  to  Jeremiah,  Patriarch  of 
Constantinople,  calling  him  his  “venerable  brother,” 
and  breathing  no  syllable  about  subjection  or  recanta- 

1 Pliilaret’s  Gescfdchte  Russlands,  trans.  by  Blumentbal,  1872,  vol.  ii.  p.  98. 


54 


Reunio7i  of  the  Churches. 


tion  of  any  doctrine,  but  only  begging  him  to  exert  his 
authority  for  the  reception  of  the  new  calendar  in  the 
East.^  And  the  ecclesiastical  acts  of  the  separated 
Eastern  Bishops  and  Priests  have  been  acknowledged 
as  valid  in  the  West  on  the  ground  of  their  episcopal 
succession  and  ordination,  as  was  distinctly  shown  at 
the  Council  of  Florence,  where  neither  the  Pope  nor 
his  theologians  maintained  that  they  had  lost  their 
jurisdiction  (or  power  of  absolution)  through  separa- 
tion from  Pome. 

The  great  stumblingblock  and  real  hindrance  to  any 
understanding  in  the  eyes  of  all  Easterns  is  the  Papacy, 
in  the  form  which  it  has  assumed  according  to  the 
ultramontane  theory,  since  the  time  of  Gregory  vn.,  of 
an  absolute  spiritual  and  temporal  dominion  over  the 
whole  Christian  world.  Both  Latins  and  Greeks  said 
as  much  in  the  middle  ages,  and  it  is  still  openly 
avowed  in  our  own  day,  as  well  by  converts  as  by 
Eussians  and  Greeks  themselves.®  And  now,  through 
recent  occurrences,  every  hope  of  reconciliation  and 
future  reunion  has  been  purposely  cut  up  by  the  roots. 
The  present  Pope  has  within  the  last  few  years  imposed 

1 See  Theiner’s  Die  Staatskirche  Raeslands,  1853,  p.  47. 

Cf.  e.g.  Prince  Augustine  Galizin’s  L' Eglise  Oroeco-Ritsse,  Paris,  1861, 
p.  59. 


Division  of  East  a^id  IVest. 


55 


three  new  articles  of  faith — the  Immaculate  Conception, 
his  Universal  Episcopate,  and  his  Infallibility.  None 
of  his  predecessors  for  1800  years,  with  one  solitary 
exception,  has  done  anything  of  the  kind,  and  that  one, 
Boniface  vill.,  contented  himself  with  a single  dogma, 
and  did  not  succeed  in  securing  the  acceptance  of  that.^ 
The  whole  traditions  of  the  Eastern  Church,  its  canon 
law  and  patristic  literature,  contain  nothing  in  support 
of  these  doctrines,  or  capable  of  being  brought  into 
harmony  with  them.  The  forgeries  employed  to  per- 
suade the  Greeks  to  accept  them  have  long  since 
been  seen  through  and  exposed. 

In  Eome  the  mind  and  temper  of  the  Greeks  and 
Eussians  was  perfectly  well  understood.  It  was  known 
that  on  their  principles  this  attempt  to  make  new 
dogmas  could  only  be  regarded  as  a crime  and  a blas- 
phemy. The  division  can  no  longer,  as  before,  be 
called  a mere  separation  or  schism  ; the  whole  Eastern 
and  Eussian  Chmch,  with  its  seventy-five  millions, 
must  now  be  declared  heretical,  and  the  Curia  and 

^ [The  author  refers  to  the  Bull  Unam  Sanctam,  issued  in  1302,  defining 
that  the  spiritual  and  temporal  swords  are  equally  committed  by  God  to 
the  Roman  Pontiff,  and  that  it  is  absolutely  essential  to  salvation  for  every 
human  being  to  be  subject  to  him.  The  Bull  was  publicly  burnt  at  Paris, 
and  Philip  the  Fair  appealed  to  a future  General  Council.  It  was  virtually 
withdrawn  by  Clement  v.  ] 


56  Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

Jesuits  must  admit  all  the  consequerfces  that  follow 
from  that  declaration.  To  speak  any  longer  of  hopes 
of  a future  union  would  border  on  madness.  We  can 
but  assume  that  this  was  deliberately  intended  at  Eome 
— entire  separation  for  ever  and  for  all  eternity.  But 
man  proposes  and  God  disposes. 

The  Eussian  people — viz.,  the  thinking  and  active 
portion  of  them,  who  form  public  opinion — believe 
that  two  great  tasks  lie  before  them,  one  in  Europe, 
the  other  in  Asia.  The  latter  is  the  strengthening 
and  maintenance  of  Christianity,  everywhere  in  Asia 
oppressed  by  Islam,  and  the  restoration  of  a great 
Asiatic  Eastern  Church.  The  Privy  Councillor  Moura- 
vieff,  a member  of  the  Governing  Synod,  refers  to  this 
point  when  he  says  : — “ We  are  thoroughly  convinced 
that  the  famous  Oriental  Sees  will  recover  their  ancient 
splendour.”  ^ Indeed,  the  system  of  the  Eussian  and 
the  whole  Eastern  Church  requires  that  the  three 
ancient  Patriarchs  of  Alexandria,  Antioch,  and  Jeru- 
salem, should  again  become  in  fact  what  they  were 
formerly,  and  not  be  mere  assessors  of  the  Patri- 
arch of  Constantinople.  In  Em’ope  it  is  the  idea 
of  Panslavism  which  shapes  the  thought  of  young 

1 Question  Religieuse  d'Orient  et  dCOccident,  p.  97. 


Division  of  East  and  West.  5 7 

Eussia,  the  ruling  and  acting  Russia  of  the  future. 
And  not  there  only,  but  throughout  Eastern  Europe, 
this  notion  or  hope  is  strongly  leavening  the  popular 
mind,  into  which  it  sinks  deeper  every  day.  Yet  the 
object  aimed  at,  whether  it  be  the  moral  or  political 
union  of  all  Slavonic  peoples,  or  of  the  ten  principal 
cognate  races,  which  comprise  together  some  eighty 
millions,  has  no  historical  basis,  and  has  never  before 
found  expression  or  sympathy.  For  the  first  time, 
in  our  own  day,  some  Bohemian  scholars,  who  had 
advanced  from  linguistic  to  historical  investigations, 
discovered  that  all  these  nationalities  united  by  a com- 
mon primitive  language  sprung  from  a common  stock. 
It  was  a natural  inference  from  this  in  Eussia,  that  the 
Russian  nation  itself,  comprising  fifty-four  millions  of 
the  eighty  million  Slaves,  was  called  to  the  hegemony 
of  the  race.  When  the  question  is  regarded  from  an 
ecclesiastical  point  of  view,  we  find  that  over  two-thirds, 
or  fifty-six  millions,  of  the  Slaves  belong  to  the  Greek 
Church,  nineteen  millions  to  the  Roman  Catholic,  three 
millions  to  the  Uniate,  and  about  a million  and  a half 
are  Protestants.  And  thus  the  Panslavist  idea  natur- 
ally points  to  the  formation  of  a great  united  Slavonic 
Church,  in  which  seventy-eight  million  Slaves  might  be 


58  Reimion  of  the  CImrches. 

religiously  welded  together  through  a union  of  Latins 
and  Easterns.  Even  now,  a letter  of  the  Czech  his- 
torian and  leader,  Palacky,  to  the  Eussian  spokesman 
of  Panslavism,  Pogodin,  is  going  the  round  of  the 
daily  papers.^  Palacky  salutes  him  as  “the  reawakener 
and  apostle  of  the  happy  idea  of  Slavonic  national 
union,”  and  adds,  “ Praise  and  thanks  to  the  aU- 
merciful  God,  who  has  blessed  your  labours  and  mine. 
The  Slavonic  national  spirit  has  waked  up  from  the 
slumber  of  centuries ; the  sentiment  of  common  fel- 
lowship is  constantly  gaining  ground  in  all  Slavonic 
countries.  The  ultimate  triumph  of  the  cause  we,  who 
are  both  old,  may  leave  with  confidence  to  the  rising 
generation.”  That  younger  generation  will  soon  dis- 
cover, if  it  has  not  discovered  already,  that,  with  the 
mass  of  the  people,  no  community  of  mind  and  senti- 
ment, such  as  is  aimed  at,  is  possible  without  an  union 
of  Churches.  The  Czechs  may  consult  the  Eussians 
about  that. 

Since  the  time  of  Alexander  ii.  a powerful  move- 
ment has  penetrated  the  Eussian  Church.  It  feels 
itself  to  be  the  chief  representative  and  leader  of  the 
Eastern  Church,  so  venerable  for  its  age,  its  unbroken 

* See  Wiener  Neue  Freie  Presse,  10  Feb.  1872. 


Division  of  East  and  West.  59 

succession,  and  its  immutability.  Even  the  indepen- 
dent Church  of  the  kingdom  of  Greece  is  stirring,  and 
in  the  South  and  Eussian  North  alike  an  ecclesiastical 
literature  is  rapidly  growing  up.  Foreign,  and  espe- 
ciaUy  German  Eterature,  is  read  and  studied.  Several 
young  men  in  Greece  have  received  their  theological 
training  at  German  universities.  And  at  the  same 
time  energetic  efforts  are  being  made  in  the  Eussian 
Church  to  secure  the  reforms  which  are  urgently  needed. 
It  is  perceived  that  the  whole  position  of  the  clergy,  the 
feud  between  the  white  and  black  clergy — the  seculars 
and  parish  priests  on  one  side,  and  the  monks  and 
bishops,  who  are  taken  from  their  ranks,  on  the  other 
— and  the  want  of  preaching  and  popular  instruction, 
are  matters  requiring  radical  change.  This  is  not  only 
felt  but  openly  asserted  ; and  those  who  remember  the 
days  of  the  Emperor  Nicholas  cannot  but  be  astonished 
at  the  advances  made  since  then.  And  this  Church  is 
able  to  correct  any  past  mistake  or  error,  as  has  been 
done  in  the  case  of  rebaptism,  even  should  it  affect 
the  decree  of  a Council.  She  is  not  compelled  by  her 
principles,  on  the  ground  of  any  fancied  infaUibiUty, 
always  to  drag  her  errors  after  her  Eke  a baE  fastened 
to  her  heel.  And  accordingly  there  is  ground  for  the 
fairest  hopes  in  that  quarter  of  the  Christian  world. 


LECTUEE  IV. 


THE  GERMAN  REFORMATION. 


( HEEE  are  not  many  years  in  the  world’s  history 


where  two  eventful  pages  come  so  close  together 
as  on  March  16  and  November  1,  1517.  On  the  former 
day  the  fifth  Lateran  Council  at  Eome  was  closed  after 
several  years’  session,  and  thereby  the  last  hope  of 
any  reform  of  the  Church  from  above  was  laid  in  the 
grave.  That  assembly  of  Italian  bishops  had  but  one 
object,  to  extend  the  power  of  the  Pope,  and  make  any 
independent  reforming  Council,  like  the  Council  of 
Basle,  impossible  for  the  future.^  Seven  months  later 
Luther’s  theses  were  posted  up  at  Wittemherg,  and  the 
contest  began  which,  after  350  years,  is  stiE  unfinished. 

1 [The  fifth  Lateran  Synod  was  opened  by  Julius  ii.  in  1512,  and  dis- 
solved in  1517  by  Leo  X.  It  consisted  of  some  fifty  or  sixty  Italian  bishops 
only,  and  has  never  been  received  as  oecumenical,  nor  did  even  ultramon- 
tane writers,  till  quite  lately,  venture  to  affirm  its  oecumenicity  with  any 
confidence  ; Bellarmine  and  Muzzarelli,  e.g.  speak  very  doubtfully.  Its 
principal  achievements  were  the  abolition  of  the  Pragmatic  Sanction,  and 
the  assertion,  in  the  Bull  Pastor  ^temus,  of  the  superiority  of  Popes  to 
Councils,  in  direct  contradiction  to  the  famous  decrees  of  Constance.] 


The  German  Reformation.  6r 

The  Eeformation  was  a movement  so  deeply  rooted 
in  the  needs  of  the  age,  and  sprang  so  inevitably  from 
the  ecclesiastical  conditions  of  the  centuries  immedi- 
ately preceding,  that  it  took  possession  of  all  the  nations 
of  the  West  in  turn.  So  powerfully  did  it  sway  men’s 
minds  in  Italy,  the  native  home  of  the  Papacy,  that 
Paul  IV.  declared  the  Inquisition,  with  its  dungeons  and 
blazing  pyres,  to  be  the  only  sure  and  firm  support  of 
the  Papacy  there.  In  Italy  and  Spain,  however,  it  was 
found  possible  to  crush  the  movement,  though  only  at 
a frightful  sacrifice  of  human  life  ; but  in  Germany  it 
sank  so  deep  into  the  heart  of  the  nation  that  even  such 
a tribunal  as  the  Spanish  Inquisition  would  have  failed 
to  achieve  the  task. 

This  force  and  strength  of  the  Eeformation  was  only 
in  part  due  to  the  personality  of  the  man  who  was  its 
author  and  spokesman  in  Germany.  It  was  Luther’s 
overpowering  greatness  and  wonderful  many-sidedness  of 
mind  that  made  him  the  man  of  his  age  and  his  people. 
Nor  was  there  ever  a German  who  had  such  an  intui- 
tive knowledge  of  his  countrymen,  and  was  again  so  com- 
pletely possessed,  not  to  say  absorbed,  by  the  national 
sentiment,  as  the  Augustinian  monk  of  Wittemberg. 
The  mind  and  spirit  of  the  Germans  was  in  his  hand 


62 


Reunion  of  the  Churches. 


what  the  lyre  is  in  the  hand  of  a skilled  musician.  He 
had  given  them  more  than  any  man  in  Christian  days 
ever  gave  his  people — language,  popular  manuals  of 
instruction,  Bibles,  hymnology.  All  his  opponents 
could  offer  in  place  of  it,  and  all  the  reply  they  could 
make  to  him,  was  insipid,  colourless,  and  feeble,  by  the 
side  of  his  transporting  eloquence.  They  stammered ; 
he  spoke.  He  alone  has  impressed  the  indelible  stamp 
of  his  mind  on  the  German  language  and  the  German 
intellect,  and  even  those  among  us  who  hold  him  in 
religious  detestation,  as  the  great  heresiarch  and  seducer 
of  the  nation,  are  constrained,  in  spite  of  themselves,  to 
speak  with  his  words  and  think  with  his  thoughts. 

And  yet  stdl  more  powerful  than  this  Titan  of  the 
world  of  mind  was  the  yearning  of  the  German  people 
for  deliverance  from  the  bonds  of  a corrupted  Church 
system.  Had  no  Luther  arisen  Germany  would  not 
have  remained  Catholic.  We  may  gather  that  from  the 
enthusiastic  sympathy,  especially  in  South  Germany, 
for  the  doctrine  of  the  Anabaptists.  This  doctrine, 
which  emanated  from  the  lowest  ranks,  was  zealously 
attacked  by  the  whole  body  of  theologians.  It  was 
essentially  distinguished  from  Luther’s  teaching,  whose 
favourite  dogma  of  justification  by  faith  alone  it  re- 


The  Ger7nan  Reformation.  63 

jected.  But  many  laid  down  their  lives  for  this  form 
of  belief,  and  if  the  princes  had  not  hastily  combined  to 
strangle  the  movement,  which  was  not  only  religious, 
hut  pohtical  and  social,  in  the  blood  of  its  adherents, 
Germany  would  probably  have  been  divided,  not,  as 
afterwards  happened,  between  Lutherans  and  Zwing- 
lians,  hut  between  Anabaptists  and  Lutherans.  Lor 
the  Eeformed  (Zwinghan)  doctrine  w’as  never  popular 
in  Germany ; it  was  a mere  exotic  growth,  artificially 
fostered  by  the  princes,  and  was  generally  only  endured 
imder  compulsion. 

Luther  had  one  very  powerful  ally  besides  the  national 
s}Tnpathy,  and  that  was  the  Court  of  Eome  itself.  Had 
the  Curia  been  advised  by  an  astute  disciple  of  the 
German  Eeformer,  he  could  hardly  have  given  counsel 
more  efficient  or  more  profitable  to  his  master  than 
what  was  actually  followed.  At  the  first  moment, 
the  official  theologian  of  the  Curia,  Sylvester  Prierio, 
Master  of  the  Sacred  Palace,  met  Luther’s  appeal  to  the 
Bible  with  the  assertion  that  the  force  and  authority  of 
Holy  Scripture  is  derived  entirely  from  the  Pope.  To 
censure  anything  done  by  Eome  was  heresy.  Then, 
again,  Leo  x.’s  BuE  against  Luther  condemned  as  errors 
such  universally  familiar  truths  as  that  the  best  penance 


64  Reimion  of  the  CJiiu^cJies. 

is  reformation  of  life,  and  that  it  is  against  the  charity 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  to  burn  heretics.  If  the  indulgence- 
preachers  told  men  that  as  soon  as  the  money  chinks  in 
the  chest  the  soul  flies  out  of  Purgatory,  they  preached 
to  deaf  ears. 

But  if  Luther  and  the  other  Eeformers  painted  in 
the  darkest  colours  the  deep  corruption  in  the  Church, 
the  wretched  management  of  ecclesiastical  affairs,  the 
crimes  of  the  clergy,  and  the  unspeakable  misery 
of  the  people,  so  utterly  neglected,  deceived,  and  plun- 
dered by  their  pastors,  all  this  was  fuUy  admitted 
on  the  other  side.  And  more  than  this  too : the 
Popes  themselves  could  not  deny — for  it  was  too 
notorious — that  Pome  itself  was  the  seat  and  source 
of  corruption,  and  the  Popes  its  authors  and  dissemi- 
nators. Adrian  VI.  had  it  openly  proclaimed  at  the 
Diet  of  Nuremberg  in  1522,  that  everything  in  the 
Church  had  been  perverted,  and  a disease  had  spread 
from  the  head  to  the  members,  from  the  Popes  to 
the  rest  of  the  rulers  of  the  Church.^  And  what 
Adrian  proclaimed  in  general,  in  accents  of  penitence, 
the  Germans  read  in  detail  twelve  years  later  in  the 

1 [Adrian  vi.,  a Netlierlander,  wlio  succeeded  Leo  x.  in  1522,  was  a man 
of  deep  piety,  but  be  reigned  only  one  year.  He  was  tbe  last  non-Italian 
Pope.] 


The  German  Reformation, 


65 


famous  memorial  drawn  up  at  the  command  of  Paul  ill. 
by  nine  Eoman  prelates,  including  Caraffa,  afterwards 
Paul  IV.,  where  the  theory  invented  by  sycophants 
of  the  Pope’s,  absolute  dominion  over  the  whole  Church 
was  characterized  as  the  source  of  all  this  corrup- 
tion.^ One  member  of  the  Commission,  Cardinal  Con- 
tarini,  who  was  afterwards  papal  legate  in  Germany, 
expressly  maintained  the  impiety  of  this  doctrine, 
which  made  the  Pope  absolute  lord  and  master  of  the 
whole  Church,  and  defended  Luther’s  work  on  the 
Babylonish  Captivity,  where  the  doctrine  of  Christian 
liberty  is  opposed  to  this  tyrannical  doctrine. 

What  was  communicated  to  the  Emperor  Charles  V. 
as  the  wish  and  advice  of  the  Pope,  was  mainly 
comprised  in  the  request  to  put  down  the  German 
movement  by  force  of  arms.  The  Legate  Campeggio 
represented  in  1530  that  capital  punisliment  and  the 
establishment  of  the  Inquisition  in  all  German  countries 


* [Paul  m.  commenced  his  reign  by  summoning  several  distingmshed 
men  of  reforming  tendencies  and  devout  life  into  the  Sacred  College, 
among  whom  were  Contarini,  Pole,  Sadolet,  Caraffa,  and  Giberto  ; and 
they  were  encouraged  to  speak  their  opinions  freely.  See  Ranke’s  Popes, 
vol.  i.  pp.  98  sqq.  It  was,  however,  through  Caraffa’s  influence,  who 
distrusted  all  gentler  means  of  gaining  over  the  Protestants,  aided  by  the 
advice  of  Ignatius  Loyola,  that  the  Roman  Inquisition  w’as  established  in 
1542,  and  he  became  one  of  the  first  and  severest  Grand  Inquisitors.  76. 
pp.  141  sqq.'] 


E 


66 


Reunion  of  the  Churches. 


would  be  the  best  remedy^  And  when  at  last  the 
Emperor  took  up  arms,  Paul  ill.  sent  an  auxiliary  force 
commanded  by  bis  nephews.  And  thus  the  feeling  of 
hatred  against  Eome  was  so  universal,  that  Marcellus  n., 
when  legate  in  Germany,  wrote  to  Eome  that  nothing 
so  filled  him  with  fear  and  horror  as  the  intense 
exasperation  of  a whole  nation,  which  he  everywhere 
encountered.^  Even  a Jesuit  hving  in  Eome,  John 
Eaure,  in  1750  felt  obliged  to  acknowledge  that  the 
principal  and  indeed  only  cause  of  the  separation  of 
the  Northern  nations  was,  not  at  all  their  love  for 
Lutheran  and  Calvinist  doctrines,  but  their  hatred  of 
the  Pope  and  Court  of  Eome,  and  this  hatred  was 
increased  by  the  profligacy,  pride,  domineering,  and 
covetousness  of  the  clergy,  especially  of  the  religious 
orders.® 

This  too  was  remarkable  and  hard  to  explain,  that 
after  the  famous  BuU  issued  by  Leo  x.  in  1520  against 
the  earliest  publications  of  Luther,  the  Popes  refrained 
from  any  further  dogmatic  pronouncements.  Europe 
was  in  a state  of  the  extremest  excitement,  and  the 

1 So  thought  Clement  vii.  according  to  Cardinal  Loaysa.  See  Cartas 
al  Emperador  Carlos  V.  por  su  Confesor.  Heine,  Berlin,  1848. 

* Cf.  Anecdota  Romana. 

® Commentarium  in  Bullam  Pauli  III.,  1750,  p.  139. 


The  German  Reformation.  67 

whole  religious  edifice  seemed  tottering  to  its  fall.  The 
most  discordant  doctrines,  in  sharp  antagonism  to  all 
previous  teaching,  were  forcing  their  way  to  the  front ; 
never  had  there  been  a period  in  all  Christian  history 
when  the  perplexity  of  men’s  minds  was  so  great,  and 
the  people  left  to  themselves  so  utterly  helpless,  as  in 
the  forty-three  years  from  1520  to  1563.  Yet  the  Popes, 
according  to  the  latest  theory  the  sole  infallible  teachers 
of  mankind,  kept  silence.  Not  a single  doctrinal 
Bull  of  that  whole  period  exists ; one  whole  generation 
was  suffered  to  grow  up  in  Europe,  and  another  to 
pass  to  its  grave,  without  knowing  what  the  infallible 
chair  in  Eome  bade  them  believe  on  the  gravest  reli- 
gious questions.  German  Bishops,  like  Faber  in  Vienna, 
made  the  most  moving  representations.  The  whole 
generation,  he  said,  whose  birth  or  youth  coincided  with 
the  time  of  the  great  controversy,  knew  not  what  was 
the  true  religion,  and  if  this  continued  men  woiild 
become  thoroughly  godless  and  atheistical.^  As  late  as 
1530  he  wrote  to  the  Pope  that,  if  even  then  he  would 
undertake  the  correction  of  abuses,  there  was  great 
hope  that  all  Germany,  and  indeed  the  whole  Church, 
would  be  brought  back  to  its  earlier  condition  of 

1 Raynaldus,  Annal.  Eccl.  ann.  1536,  p.  70. 


68 


Reimion  of  the  Churches. 


peaceful  orthodoxy.^  But  all  was  in  vain.  The  Popes 
persisted  in  their  policy  of  silence,  and  of  putting  every 
obstacle  in  the  way  of  the  Council  so  anxiously  looked  for, 
until  it  was  too  late  for  its  decrees  to  make  the  slightest 
impression  on  a generation  that  had  been  thoroughly 
imbued  with  Protestant  views  from  childhood. 

And  the  German  Church  ? Where  was  it  then,  and 
how  did  it  help  itself?  The  Germans  had  still  indeed 
a political  unity — the  Empire,  with  the  Emperor  and  the 
Imperial  Diet;  and  they  had  Bishops  and  dioceses.  But 
there  was  wanting  a higher  organization  of  common  life, 
— in  a word,  a German  national  Church.  For  centuries 
no  German  Council  had  been  held,  nor  anything  done 
to  remedy  even  the  grossest  and  most  crying  abuses. 
In  truth,  such  a Council  was  hardly  possible,  and  it  is  a 
significant  fact  that  during  the  whole  forty  years  of  the 
Eeformation  contest,  neither  the  German  episcopate, 
nor  even  any  considerable  portion  of  it,  made  a single 
attempt  to  take  counsel  in  Synod  on  the  religious  situa- 
tion and  the  common  measures  to  be  adopted  There 
is  scarcely  a parallel  case  in  all  Church  history,  but  it 
is  explained  by  their  conscious  impotence.  For  since 
the  dismemberment  of  the  entire  Church  system  through 

1 Eaynald.  Annal.  Eccl.  ann.  1536,  p.  54. 


The  German  Reformatioyi.  69 

the  Popes,  the  German  Church  lay  on  the  ground  like 
a helpless  and  motionless  giant  -wdth  fettered  limbs. 

The  whole  conduct  of  the  Popes  from  Clement  Vll. 
dowwards,  in  regard  to  the  constantly  renewed  peti- 
tions and  requirements  of  the  Emperor,  the  sovereigns, 
and  the  nations,  as  recent  discoveries  have  revealed  it  to 
us,  was  one  long  series  of  evasions,  intrignes,  and  false- 
hoods. Pius  IV.  himself  declared  without  hesitation  to 
the  Venetian  ambassador,  that  his  predecessors  had 
professed  to  wish  for  a Council,  but  had  not  really 
desired  it.  And  he  added,  that  if  he  wished  after  their 
example  to  give  the  mere  appearance  of  a Council,  he 
could  keep  the  world  occupied  for  three  or  four  years 
at  least  with  the  question  of  when  it  should  meet.^ 
Many  may  find  it  incomprehensible  how,  at  a time 
when  one  nation  after  another  was  being  swept  into 
the  movement,  the  authorities  at  Eome  should  have 
obstinately  persisted  in  refusing  what  they  must  have 
themselves  acknowledged  to  be  just  and  right ; but 
three  causes  conspired  to  produce  this  result.  The  first 
was  the  powerful  and  compact  resistance  of  the  whole 
entourage  of  a Pope  and  his  court,  which  profited  by  the 
abuses.  The  second  cause  lay  in  the  diminution  of 

1 Cf.  Keimarus,  Forschungen  zur  deutschen  OescMchte,  pp.  594,  602. 


70 


Reunion  of  the  Churches. 


power  wliicli  any  reform  must  inevitably  involve.  For 
the  development  of  the  papal  system,  with  its  centra- 
lized bureaucracy  and  plenary  power  to  meddle  in 
everything,  had  sunk  the  Church  in  such  deep  degrada- 
tion that  every  removal  of  an  abuse,  every  improvement 
in  doctrine  and  discipline,  would  have  been  also  a 
lessening  or  limitation  of  papal  power.  Lastly  and 
chiefly,  it  was  the  supreme  principle  and  soul  of  the 
whole  Eoman  system  of  ecclesiastical  administration 
that  made  the  Papacy  hostile  to  all  reform — the  prin- 
ciple, namely,  that  a claim  once  preferred  could  never 
be  abandoned,  an  error  or  injustice  never  publicly  con- 
fessed, and  therefore  never  remedied.  Authority  must 
remain  inviolate,  and  can  never  be  sufiflciently  exalted. 
This  was  pre-eminently  the  principle  of  the  new  Order 
of  Jesuits,  which  now  came  to  the  assistance  of  the 
Papacy  in  its  sore  need.  And  this  soon  appeared  in 
the  great  question  of  the  use  of  the  chalice,  which  the 
sovereigns,  who  in  other  respects  were  entirely  opposed 
to  Protestantism,  were  now  urging,  because  they  saw  no 
other  way  of  retaining  their  subjects  in  the  ancient 
Church.  But  the  Jesuits,  Canisius  especially,  carried 
the  day  by  insisting  that  the  point  at  issue  was  the 
authority  of  the  Church,  meaning  that  of  the  Pope,  for 


The  German  Reformation.  71 

whicLi  alone  they  cared.  If  any  concession  was  made, 
how  was  the  earlier  conduct  of  the  Popes  to  he  excused, 
with  the  bloody  wars  and  countless  holocausts  of  human 
victims  it  had  cost 

When  we  look  closely  into  the  circumstances  of  Ger- 
many during  the  period  from  1520  to  1568,  we  perceive 
how  the  resistance  of  the  old  Catholic  element  became 
constantly  feebler  and  the  number  of  Catholics  more 
limited,  till  at  last  the  Protestant  belief,  like  a mighty 
stream,  swept  everything  before  it.  In  a former  work 
I have  taken  pains  to  discover  all  the  German  scholars 
who  still  adhered  to  the  ancient  Church,  or  would 
gladly  have  remained  loyal  to  it,  but  it  was  a mere 
handful.  In  the  reports  of  papal  nuncios  during  thirty 
years  we  read  that  there  were  still  many  so-called 
“ Expectants,”  who  wished  to  remain  undecided  till  a 
true  Council  pointed  out  to  them  the  right  way.  We 
read  how  these  nuncios  were  adjured  and  implored  with 
tears  by  the  highest  personages,  by  princes,  to  impress 
on  the  conscience  of  the  Pope  the  urgent  necessity  of 
at  once  convoking  an  (Ecumenical  or  a German  Council 
as  the  only  available  means  of  saving  the  Church. 
But,  generally  speaking,  all  the  learning  and  culture 
* Cf.  Catiisii  Vita,  p.  199. 


72  Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

gravitated  to  the  Protestant  side,  especially  the  influ- 
ential class  of  schoolmasters  and  humanists,  and  even 
the  clergy.  These  last  were  stdl  very  numerous  at  the 
beginning  of  the  movement,  for  the  German  Chm’ch  was 
the  wealthiest  in  the  world.  The  endowed  benefices 
were  numberless ; even  small  towns  had  from  thirty 
to  forty  priests,  besides  convents  and  monks,  and  we  see 
these  clergy  going  over  in  shoals  to  the  Eeformation, 
or  succumbing  without  the  sbghtest  resistance  to  the 
introduction  of  Protestantism.  In  those  countries  and 
cities  where  the  new  religion  had  been  imposed  by  the 
civil  authority  or  the  magistrates,  the  Catholic  clergy 
did  not  depart,  as  they  easily  might  have  done,  but 
stayed  where  they  were,  partly  in  voluntary  partly  in 
involuntary  subjection.  Even  the  dissolution  of  the 
monasteries  only  converted  the  monks  into  Protestant - 
preachers,  or  followers  of  some  secular  calling.  And 
yet  in  South  Germany  there  were  hundreds  of  un- 
occupied parishes  and  empty  monasteries,  where  the 
priests  and  monks  ejected  by  the  Eeformation  would 
have  been  gladly  welcomed  and  cared  for,  had  they 
come.  And  this  too  at  a time  when  all  over  Europe, 
in  France,  England,  the  Netherlands,  Italy,  Spain, 
fagots  were  blazing,  and  men  preferred  a fiery  death  to 
denying  their  faith. 


The  German  Reformation.  73 

In  1557  the  Venetian  ambassador,  Badoero,  who  was 
well  informed,  reported  that  seven-tenths  of  the  Ger- 
man nation  had  become  Lutheran,  and  two-tenths 
belonged  to  other  sects — the  Eeformed  and  Anabaptist, 
— while  only  one-tenth  remained  Catholic.  The  greater 
part  of  Austria  and  Bohemia  was  Protestant,  and  in 
Bavaria,  the  nobility,  and  the  Emperor  Maximilian  ll. 
himself,  though  he  continued  nominally  Catholic,  were 
of  the  same  religion.  But  since  the  end  of  the  six- 
teenth and  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  half 
Germany  has  gradually  become  Catholic  again.  This 
happened  partly  through  the  internal  division  of  the 
Protestants  and  the  Ptigious  spirit  of  their  divines, 
which  produced  disgust  and  painful  uncertainty  among 
the  people,  and  led  many  to  look  on  the  rigid  system 
of  authority  and  uniformity  of  the  ancient  Church  as 
preferable.  But  it  was  chiefly  by  the  oppression  and 
banishment  of  the  Protestant  ministers,  the  forced 
emigration  of  those  who  adhered  to  their  faith,  the 
destruction  of  Protestant  Bibles,  catechisms,  and  hymn- 
books,  and  generally  the  employment  of  all  those 
means  of  coercion  which  the  Jesuits  had  reduced  to 
a system,  that  the  so-called  counter-Eeformation  in 
Austria  and  Bavaria  and  the  ecclesiastical  principalities 
was  brought  about. 


74  Reimion  of  the  Churches. 

But  the  notion  of  a permanent  separation  from  the 
ancient  Church  had  not  occurred  to  the  generation 
of  the  Eeformation  era  in  Germany.  It  was  only  a 
reformation  that  was  demanded ; it  had  been  longed  for 
and  demanded  for  centuries  before.  The  old  dwelling- 
house  was  thought  to  require  repairing  and  cleansing,  but 
there  was  no  intention  of  pulling  it  down  and  building 
a new  one  in  its  place.  The  idea  of  two  rival  Churches 
in  Germany  arrayed  in  permanent  hostility  against  each 
other  shocked  the  mind.  All  diets  and  religious  con- 
ferences of  the  day  were  conducted  on  the  assumption 
that  the  adherents  of  the  new  and  the  old  religion  were 
still  members  of  one  universal  Church,  and  that  a 
common  understanding  could  and  ought  to  be  arrived 
at,  and  communion  of  worship  restored.  Even  when 
the  Augsburg  religious  treaty  of  1555  established  a 
legal  and  political  separation,  the  Estates  of  the  Empire 
consoled  themselves  and  the  nation  with  the  hope  of 
a future  Council ; and  as  that  could  not  be  at  ouce 
obtained,  they  thought  another  religious  conference 
should  be  tried,  when,  as  was  said,  “ the  truth  would  be 
brought  to  light.”  Two  years  later  this  conference  was 
opened  without  any  result  at  Worms.  But  still  for  a 
long  time  the  separation  continued  to  be  regarded  as  a 


The  German  Refoj'mation.  75 

temporary  and  provisional  state  of  things,  although  it 
seemed  as  if  the  Tridentine  decrees  on  the  one  side,  and 
the  Formulary  of  Concord^  on  the  other,  in  their  sharp 
antithesis  must  exclude  all  hope.  Yet  a century  after 
the  separation  the  hope  of  a future  union  was  still 
clung  to  in  the  Articles  of  the  Westphalian  Peace,  and 
the  boundary-hnes  were  fixed  only  until,  “ by  the  grace 
of  God,”  a friendly  settlement  of  the  religious  contro- 
versies was  attained.^ 

With  the  year  1560,  at  the  end  of  the  reign  of  the 
Emperor  Ferdinand  l.,  a revolution  began  to  work  in 
Germany,  and  generally  both  in  the  Catholic  and  the 
Protestant  camp,  which  could  not  fail  to  make  even  any 
approach  to  friendly  negotiations  more  difficult,  and 
seemed  destined  to  make  the  breach  perpetual.  Among 
the  German  Protestants  the  long  series  of  internal 
controversies  was  decided  in  a strictly  Lutheran 
sense,  and  the  building  up  of  the  Lutheran  dogmatic 
system  followed, — a theological  codification  studiously 
sharpening  all  the  points  of  divergence  from  the 
ancient  Church.  It  was  based  on  the  Formulary  of 
Concord,  which  was  not  a common  symbol  like 

1 [The  Formula  Concordia  was  established  in  1577,  after  Luther’s  death, 
as  the  final  and  formal  standard  of  Lutheran  doctrine.] 

* Of.  Instrum.  Pads  Westphal.  v.  14,  25,  31,  48. 


76  Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

the  Augsburg  Confession,  but  a theological  code  which 
the  princes  enforced  by  all  the  means  of  compul- 
sion at  their  command.  Thenceforward  all  attempts 
at  peace  and  re-union  necessarily  ceased.  Still  more 
fatal  was  the  change  which  took  place  in  the  Catholic 
Church,  coinciding  with  the  latter  period  of  the  Council 
of  Trent  and  the  rise  of  the  Jesuit  Order.  Hitherto, 
since  1640,  and  partly  before,  there  had  been  a con- 
siderable body  of  learned  men  in  the  Church,  who 
were  attached  indeed  to  the  Catholic  doctrine  and 
communion,  but  at  the  same  time  recommended  radical 
reforms  and  a return  to  the  earlier  and  purer  system 
of  the  Church,  and  were  accordingly  in  favour  of 
making  great  concessions  to  the  Protestant  party.  Such 
had  been,  in  Germany,  Erasmus  and  his  friends,  and 
then  Witzel,  Staphylus,  Cassander,  Wild  (or  Ferns),  and, 
in  France,  d’Espense,  Gentien,  Hervet,  the  Chancellor 
I’Hopital,  and  others.  The  gentle  Emperor  Ferdinand  l. 
was  substantially  of  the  same  mind,  differing  therein 
from  his  brother  Charles  v.,  who  took  the  Spanish  view, 
and  only  saw  in  all  the  movements  of  the  age  a 
heresy  to  be  rooted  out  with  fire  and  sword.  Ferdi- 
nand and  his  son  Maximilian  ll.  still  hoped  for  a 
reconciliation.  Ferdinand  procured  the  drawing  up  of 


The  German  Reformation.  77 

the  eirenical  memorials  of  Cassander  and  Witzel,  and 
for  a long  time  demanded  more  searching  reforms  from 
the  Council  of  Trent.  He  did  not  obtain  them,  and 
at  last  agreed,  though  reluctantly,  to  the  Council  being 
closed  without  having  satisfied  even  the  most  moderate 
requirements  of  Church  reform. 

The  writings  of  Witzel  and  Cassander  on  one  side, 
and  the  opinions  and  influence  of  the  contemporary 
Jesuits,  Laynez,  Salmeron,  and  Canisius,  on  the  other, 
reveal  the  wide  chasm  which  was  on  the  point  of 
opening  within  the  Catholic  Church.  The  former 
started  from  the  principle  that,  to  use  Cassander’s 
words  addressed  to  the  Emperor  Eerdinand,  the  view 
and  judgment  of  the  ancient  Church  must  be  investi- 
gated, in  order  that,  as  far  as  possible,  the  present 
Church,  which  was  descended  from  it,  might  be  restored 
to  the  form  it  assumed  in  its  free  development  after 
Constantine,  at  the  period  of  the  first  Councils. 
Cassander  adds  that  the  authority  of  this  ancient 
Church  is  so  fully  recognised,  that  both  sides,  even 
those  who  are  wont  to  appeal  to  Scripture  only,  appeal 
to  its  verdict.  The  Jesuits  devoted  themselves  to 
enforcing  the  opposite  view.  According  to  their  repre- 
sentation the  Church  is  a great  all-embracing  Empire, 


78  Reiinion  of  the  Churches. 

an  absolute  monarchy,  ruled  with  irresponsible  and 
plenary  power  by  one  man,  the  Pope.  To  him  all  ahke, 
layman  and  cleric,  king  and  beggar,  are  equally  and 
absolutely  subject.  No  one  has  any  rights  before  him, 
and  all  authority  in  the  Church  is  an  emanation  from 
his — a mere  deputed  power  that  may  at  any  moment 
be  recalled.  This  papal  kingdom  must  be  upheld  and 
extended  by  all  means  of  compulsion  and  violence,  and 
punishments  of  life  and  limb,  sometimes  directly  in- 
flicted, sometimes  by  invoking  the  secular  arm,  which  is 
bound  at  once  to  execute  its  sentence.  To  make  any 
sort  of  concession  to  the  rebellious  and  disobedient 
would  be  simply  to  put  a premium  on  rebellion.  More- 
over, the  Papacy  requires  large  revenues  and  constant 
influx  of  money  from  the  whole  world,  partly  on  account 
of  the  enormous  expenses  involved  in  the  administra- 
tion of  a kingdom  of  200  millions  descending  into  the 
minutest  details,  partly  that  it  may  be  able  to  reward 
liberally  its  numerous  ministers  and  instruments.  And 
therefore  all  reforms  calculated  in  any  way  to  diminish 
the  papal  income  are  for  that  reason,  if  for  no  other, 
inadmissible. 

There  could  not,  of  course,  but  be  bitter  enmity 
between  the  reforming  school  of  Catholic  theologians 


The  German  Reformation. 


79 


and  the  Jesuits,  and  Witzel  said  with  good  reason,  “We 
are  the  object  of  their  fiercest  enmity,  because  they 
wish  to  preserve  the  present  deformed  condition  of  the 
Church,  and,  according  to  the  principles  of  their  Order, 
will  allow  no  improvement.”  ^ The  leading  men  of  this 
party  soon  died  off,  and  those  who  inherited  their  ideas 
had  to  keep  silence  and  conceal  themselves,  for  the 
Jesuits  in  a rapid  course  of  victory  gained  possession  of 
the  Catholic  high  schools  and  gymnasia,  and  became 
confessors  and  directors  of  conscience  at  the  Courts, 
and  who  then  would  have  dared  in  Catholic  Germany 
to  disown  their  rule  or  breathe  a single  notion  dis- 
pleasing to  them  ? Moreover,  every  work  which  sug- 
gested any  concessions  at  all  being  made  to  the  ad- 
herents of  the  Eeformation  was  promptly  condemned  at 
Eome,  and  every  such  opinion  compromised  the  author’s 
safety.  And  thus  on  both  such  sides  any  approxi- 
mation seemed  impossible.  In  all  the  domains  of 
Catholic  princes  Protestant  worship  was  suppressed, 
under  Jesuit  dictation  ; it  was  the  professed  aim  of  the 
Order  to  undermine  the  treaty  of  Augsburg.  Every- 
thing was  rapidly  tending  to  the  Thirty  Years’  War. 

^ See  his  letters  to  Cassander  in  1565,  shortly  before  his  death,  in  Illus- 
rium  et  Clarorum  Virorum  Epistolm,  Batav.  1617,  p.  280. 


8o  Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

Here  I must  refer  to  a peculiar  difficulty  whicli 
stands  in  the  way  of  any  approximation  or  friendly 
understanding  between  the  German  Protestant  Church 
and  one  of  the  ancient  Churches.  I mean  the  inter- 
ruption of  ecclesiastical  succession,  the  abolition  of  the 
episcopate  and  episcopal  ordination  of  Presbyters. 
There  was  no  external  necessity  for  Luther  and  his 
colleagues  to  do  this,  for  some  of  the  CathoUc  bishops 
had  early  come  over  to  their  side.  But  they  thought 
that,  as  in  the  Hew  Testament  the  words  hishcrp  and 
presbyter  are  used  interchangeably,  and  the  two  offices 
were  not  at  first  distinguished,  the  episcopate  must  he 
regarded  as  a mere  later  and  human  institution.  But 
with  it  much  more  too  was  lost,  more  than  at  first  sight 
they  themselves  comprehended;  the  link  which  attached 
them  to  the  old  apostolic  Church  was  severed,  and  the 
bridge  broken  down  by  means  of  which  communion  or 
mutual  exercise  of  influence  between  the  two  bodies 
might  have  been  maintained  or  reopened.  This  ap- 
peared also  in  their  relation  to  the  English  Church, 
which  had  equally  issued  from  the  Eeformation,  but 
had  retained  the  episcopate,  and  with  it  the  succession 
and  ordination.  Consequently,  any  German  Protestant 
minister  who  wished  to  enter  its  service  had  first  to 


The  German  Reformation.  8i 

undergo  episcopal  ordination,  whereas  a Latin  or  Greek 
priest  coming  over  to  its  communion  is  received  at  once 
by  virtue  of  his  former  orders,  the  validity  of  which  is 
acknowledged.  And  on  episcopal  ordination  depends 
the  consecration  of  the  Holy  Eucharist  and  absolution. 
And  all  this  was  sacrificed  on  the  strength  of  a doubtful 
interpretation  of  Scripture,  for  not  a few  Protestant 
theologians  held  that  the  episcopate  was  instituted  by 
the  Apostles,  though  in  the  later  apostolic  age ; and 
aU  must  allow  that  the  whole  history  of  the  Church 
from  the  death  of  the  Apostles  exhibits  a settled 
episcopate  existing  everywhere,  and  indeed  is  com- 
pletely shaped  by  it. 

Two  distinguished  philosophers,  Leibnitz  and  the 
Court  preacher  Jablonski,  about  1701,  when  Prussia 
became  a kingdom,  perceived  the  gravity  of  the  false 
position  into  which  the  German  Eeformed  Church  had 
brought  herself,  and  busied  themselves  with  considering 
how  the  defect  might  be  remedied.  Leibnitz  thought 
it  would  have  been  better  if  the  Eeformers  had  not 
broken  the  “ linea  ordinationis  ” (the  succession)  legiti- 
mately preserved  in  ancient  Christendom,  and  the 
bishops  had  retained  their  former  position,  and  priests 


F 


82  Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

been  ordained  by  bishops,  as  befored  Jablonski  took 
a similar  view.  He  thought  the  episcopate  had  been 
abolished  in  order  to  outrage  the  Eoman  Church  as 
much  as  possible,  whereby  also  all  the  Eastern  Churches, 
the  Enghsh,  and  all  Christian  antiquity,  was  set  at 
nought.  And  he  added  that  its  restoration  was  the 
more  to  be  wished,  because  it  almost  seemed  as  though 
in  separating  from  the  Eoman  Church  they  had  separ- 
ated from  the  universal  Church  also ; but  he  did  not 
deny  that  there  were  great  difficulties  in  the  way  of 
such  a restoration,  which  could  only  be  overcome  “ by 
a large  measure  of  heroic  spirit.”  ^ 

Both  representations  were  addressed  to  the  King  of 
Prussia,  and  Frederick  l.  actually,  on  assuming  the  royal 
title,  had  two  preachers,  Ursinus  and  Sander,  conse- 
crated bishops  by  the  English  Church,  but  with  their 
death  this  episcopate  again  became  extinct.  In  our 
own  days  Erederick-WiUiam  IV.  again  took  up  the 
subject,  and  this  was  one  of  his  reasons  for  urging 
the  establishment  of  a Protestant  bishopric  at  Jeru- 
salem. Here  a bishop  of  the  English  Church  was  to 
impart  ordination  to  German  clergymen ; and  in  the 

1 See  Joh.  Esth.  Kapfen’s  Einige  Vertrauten  Brief e,  Leipzig,  1745, 
p.  250.  ^ Cf.  Henke's  Magazin,  1795.  No.  222. 


The  German  Reformatiori.  83 

King’s  instructions  occur  the  words,  which  have  evi- 
dently been  carefully  chosen,  that  “he  offers  his  hand 
with  full  confidence  to  the  episcopal  Church  of  Eng- 
land, which  unites  with  evangelical  principles  an  his- 
torical constitution  and  ecclesiastical  independence 
aiming  at  universality.”  This  is  a gentle  hut  perfectly 
intelligible  expression  of  the  feeling  that  his  own 
Church  was  too  much  isolated  and  alienated  from 
the  great  ancient  communions ; and  it  is  in  fact  well 
known  that  he  was  dissatisfied  with  his  “ sovereign 
episcopate,”  and  would  gladly  have  intrusted  the  guid- 
ance of  the  Church  to  fitter  hands,  meaning  thereby  an 
episcopal  constitution. 


LECTUEE  y. 


EEACTION  TOWARDS  UNION  ON  THE  CONTINENT  IN  THE 
SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY. 

HE  Germans  displayed  a quite  remarkable  patience 


in  attempting  for  nearly  a century  to  heal  tbe 
religious  schism  by  means  of  public  conferences,  the 
latest  of  which  took  place  in  1601  at  Eatisbon,  and 
1618  at  Prague.  But  this  only  resulted  in  scholastic 
disputations,  in  which  everything  turned  on  dialectical 
skill  and  promptness,  and  the  one  point  aimed  at  was 
to  perplex  the  adversary  and  involve  him  in  a contra- 
diction. The  upshot,  as  a rule,  was  simply  to  widen 
the  chasm,  and  increase  mutual  bitternes.s,  without  any 
real  gain  to  either  side.  And  that  always  will  be  the 
result  when  each  party  starts  with  the  conviction  of  its 
own  absolute  perfection,  and  seeks  nothing  but  victory 
and  the  conversion  of  opponents  to  its  own  views. 

In  the  period  succeeding  the  Thirty  Years’  War,  many 


Reaction  of  Seventee^ith  Century.  85 

members  of  the  Lutheran  Church  felt  uncomfortable 
and  dissatisfied  with  their  position.  There  was  some- 
thing oppressive  and  humiliating  in  the  yoke  of  civil 
domination  over  the  Church,  and  its  entire  dependence 
on  secular  princes  and  their  theological  advisers.  It 
is  true  that  the  scandalous  and  violent  changes  of 
the  religion  of  whole  countries,  such  as  took  place  in 
the  Palatinate,  in  Anhalt,  and  elsewhere,  ceased  after 
the  Westphalian  Peace,  and  the  religious  changes  of 
sovereigns  affected  themselves  only.  But  still  the 
whole  Church  system  remained  in  the  hands  of  Con- 
sistories, under  royal  control.  And  to  this  must  be 
added  the  theological  ossification  and  narrow  rigidity 
of  the  doctrines  which  had  to  be  maintained  according 
to  the  Pormulary  of  Concord.  From  these  causes 
sprang  a double  reaction,  among  the  laity  and  the 
theologians.  The  lay  reaction  manifested  itself  partly 
in  the  growing  frequency  of  conversions  to  Catholicism ; 
many  felt  the  authority  of  Popes  and  Councils  to  be 
preferable  to  that  of  a secular  prince.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  whole  religious  literature  of  the  laity,  from 
the  seventeenth  to  far  into  the  eighteenth  century,  is 
penetrated  with  a profound  dissatisfaction  at  the  con- 
dition of  the  system  and  prevalent  teaching  of  the 


86  Reimion  of  the  Churches. 

Protestant  Cliurch.  The  theological  reaction  was 
chiefly  developed  in  the  writings  and  school  of  George 
Calixtus,  as  represented  at  the  two  universities  of 
Helmstadt  and  Konigsberg.  Calixtus  insisted  on  the 
authority  of  ecclesiastical  tradition,  rightly  understood, 
viz.,  the  consentient  teaching  of  the  first  five  centuries, 
being  recognised  as  well  as  the  scriptural  evidence  of 
doctrine.  And  thus  he  approximated  to  the  ancient 
Churches,  both  Eastern  and  Latin,  and  evoked  the  most 
vigorous  opposition.  His  view,  which  is  now  shared  by 
so  many  of  the  very  best  men,  that  the  three  particular 
Churches  should  not  regard  themselves  as  faultless  and 
incapable  of  improvement,  found  no  acceptance  then  on 
either  side. 

Meanwhile,  towards  the  end  of  the  seventeentli 
century  the  number  of  converts  to  the  Catholic  Church 
increased.  Queen  Christina,  the  talented  and  accom- 
plished daughter  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  resigned  the 
Swedish  throne  to  embrace  Catholicism,  in  order  to 
take  refuge  in  the  ship  of  ecclesiastical  authority  from 
the  ocean  of  philosophical  doubt.  Still  more  remarkable 
was  the  conversion  of  the  learned  Landgrave  of  Hesse- 
Ehineland,  who,  after  twenty  years’  experience,  wrote  a 
book  fuU  of  well-meant  but  unsparing  exposure  of  the 


Reaction  of  Seventeenth  Century.  87 

abuses  be  bad  discovered  in  tbe  Cburcb  of  bis  choice. 
Tbe  motives  of  several  other  conversions  of  princes  and 
princesses  about  tbe  same  period  were  less  disinterested. 

Further  influences  co-operated  to  produce  in  thinking 
Protestants  a longing,  if  not  for  tbe  Catholic  Church, 
for  the  appropriation  of  its  prerogatives.  The  ISTether- 
lander,  Hugo  Grotius,  who  was  celebrated  throughout 
Europe  as  an  acute  and  many-sided  scholar,  had  in  his 
rvudely  circulated  writings  insisted  far  more  strongly 
than  Calixtus  on  the  profound  and  excessive  divergence 
of  Protestantism  from  the  Church  of  the  early  centuries, 
and  the  necessity  of  either  seeking  a reunion  with  the 
ancient  Church,  or  at  least  restoring  much  which  had 
been  rejected.  And  afterwards  a great  impression  was 
produced  by  the  accession  of  a truly  pious  and  model 
Pope  in  the  person  of  Innocent  XL  (1676-1G89),  who 
was  at  once  engaged  in  earnest  conflict  with  the  Jesuits, 
and  made  an  attempt,  feeble  and  ineffectual  as  it  proved, 
to  put  a check  on  their  pernicious  system  of  morals. 
He  was  the  only  Pope  who  made  such  advances  to 
the  Protestants  as  entirely  to  approve  the  negotiations 
of  Spinola,  which  were  based  on  extensive  concessions. 
But  his  participation  had  to  be  kept  secret,  and  Spinola 
was  obliged  to  act  in  his  own  name,  without  appealing 


88 


Reunion  of  the  Churches. 


to  the  plenary  powers  granted  him  by  the  Pope,  be- 
cause the  French  Cardinals  in  Pome  were  opposed  to 
the  scheme.’  A religious  reconciliation  with  Germany 
would  then,  as  afterwards,  have  been  very  inconvenient 
for  French  policy. 

These  labours  for  reunion  commenced  in  Germany 
in  1676,  and  lasted  about  thirty  years.  Eoyas  de 
Spinola,  a Spaniard  who  had  come  to  Germany  as 
confessor  of  the  Emperor  Leopold’s  wife,  and  was  made 
bishop  first  of  Teria  (in  Croatia),  and  then  of  Neustadt 
near  Vienna,  was  the  first  to  undertake  the  enterprise. 
Germany  was  still  suffering  from  the  effects  of  the 
Thirty  Years’  War,  and  the  Jesuits,  who  were  its  authors, 
were  as  powerful  as  ever  at  the  Courts  of  Paris  and 
Vienna.  Both  the  Emperor  Leopold  and  Louis  xrv. 
had  intrusted  their  consciences  to  them,  and  followed 
their  counsel  implicitly  in  religious  matters ; and  if 
the  houses  of  Hapsburg  and  Bourbon  were  united,  and 
abandoned  their  feud  of  150  years’  standing,  they 
seemed  strong  enough  to  crush  Protestantism  on  the 
Continent,  the  more  so  as  it  had  no  powerful  protector 

1 [Some  account  of  Spinola’s  labours,  and  of  the  negotiations  for  union 
in  the  seventeenth  century  generally,  may  be  found  in  two  articles  on 
“ Leibnitz’s  Letters  on  Reunion,”  in  the  Contemporary  Review  for  May 
and  August  1867.] 


Reaction  of  Seventeenth  Ce^itury.  89 


to  fall  back  upon.  But  there  was  no  prospect  of  this, 
owing  to  the  hostile  attitude  assumed  by  Louis  towards 
the  imperial  house  and  the  German  Empire.  The 
Emperor  Leopold  was  so  deeply  interested  in  the  suc- 
cess of  the  undertaking  that  he  at  last  brought  the 
negotiations  for  union  to  Vienna,  and  summoned 
Leibnitz  thither. 

On  the  German  Protestant  side  stood  Leibnitz  and 
Molanus,  the  latter  a well-grounded  theologian  of  the 
school  of  Calixtus;  the  former  the  leading  mind  of 
Germany  at  that  date,  equally  acute  and  capacious,  and 
of  immense  knowledge— an  universal  genius  in  his  day, 
like  Aristotle  of  old,  and  in  fact  the  first  who  raised 
the  credit  of  Germany  before  the  world  after  the  deep 
decay  of  the  seventeenth  century.  After  a while, 
Bossuet,  the  most  influential  of  the  French  bishops, 
who  might  almost  be  called  the  theological  oracle  of 
his  age,  was  brought  into  the  negotiations  through  the 
intervention  of  some  royal  ladies.^  Bossuet’s  famous 
Exposition  of  the  Catholic  Faith  had  appeared  some 
time  before,  and  had  at  once  been  translated  into  all 
languages.  The  aim  of  his  book  was  to  distinguish 

1 [Especially  of  Anna  Gonzaga  of  Mantua,  wife  of  Edward,  Count  Pala- 
tine.] 


90  Retmion  of  the  CJmrches. 

what  is  really  dogma  from  theological  opinions  and 
inferences,  and  to  place  it  before  Protestants  in  the  least 
repellent  form.  It  had  been  approved  and  commended 
in  Eome  by  Pope  and  Cardinals,  and  has  almost 
attained  and  preserved  down  to  our  own  day  the 
authority  of  a Confession  of  Faith.  Now,  of  course,  like 
so  many  other  writings  and  views,  it  is  abolished  and 
become  obsolete,  for  it  says  nothing  of  the  new  articles 
of  faith  fabricated  since  1854,  and  characterizes  as 
mere  school  opinions  what  are  now  proposed  as  Divine 
revelations.  Thus  Bossuet  puts  aside  the  question  of 
Infallibility,  as  a mere  scholastic  controversy  having 
no  relation  to  faith ; and  this  was  approved  at  Eome 
at  the  time.  Now,  of  course,  he  is  no  longer  re- 
garded in  his  own  country  as  the  classical  theologian 
and  most  eminent  doctor  of  modern  times,  but  as  a 
man  who  devoted  his  most  learned  and  comprehen- 
sive work,  the  labour  of  many  years,  to  the  establish- 
ment and  defence  of  a fundamental  error,  and  spent 
many  years  of  his  life  in  the  perversion  of  facts  and 
distortion  of  authorities.  For  that  must  be  the  present 
verdict  of  every  infallibilist  on  Bossuet. 

At  that  time  the  first  condition  in  all  such  negotia- 
tions, which  had  to  be  demanded  on  the  Catholic  side. 


Reaction  of  Seventeenth  Cenhu'y.  9 1 

was  that  the  Protestants  should  no  longer  regard  and 
designate  the  Pope  as  Antichrist,  and  when  this  was 
agreed  upon  Spinola  and  Molanus  thought  a great 
point  was  gained.  For  this  view  was  still  universally 
prevalent,  and  dominated  the  thoughts  and  feelings  of 
the  people  to  such  a degree  that  a contemporary 
theologian,  Hermann  of  Hurdt,  could  write  to  his 
colleague  Fahricius  of  Helmstadt  that  “ all  Protestants 
are  so  bewitched  with  this  conceit  about  Antichrist, 
that  they  fly  from  Catholics  as  from  snakes  in  the 
garden,  and  think  they  see  a dragon  or  an  evil  spirit  if 
they  meet  a Catholic.”  ^ According  to  the  received  view, 
the  apocalyptic  images  of  the  harlot  seated  on  the 
beast,  who  is  drunk  with  the  blood  of  the  saints  and 
disciples  of  Jesus,  and  of  Babylon  that  deceived  the 
nations,  were  not  to  be  understood  of  heathen  but  of 
papal  Pome,  and  the  Pope  himself  as  the  Antichrist 
of  Scripture, — a view  put  forward  by  the  Protestant 
divines  as  the  foundation  of  their  religion,  though  it 
is  inconsistent  with  Scripture  and  involves  fatal  con- 
tradictions. But  Ptome  was  partly  responsible  for  its 
growth.  If  the  Pope  was  constantly  urging  on  religious 
wars,  and  recommending  the  extermination  of  all 

1 Mensel's  Magazin,  1788,  p.  118. 


92  Reunion  of  the  Chtirches. 

heretics  by  the  sword — and  even  at  Eome  executions 
for  Protestantism  continued  down  into  the  seventeenth 
century, — the  people  were  sure  to  think  they  saw  the 
Papacy  in  the  apocalyptic  woman  drunk  with  the  blood 
of  the  saints,  just  as  it  was  easy  to  identify  the  Man  of 
Sin  spoken  of  by  St.  Paul,  who  exalts  himself  above 
everything  divine,  and  sits  in  the  temple  of  God,  with 
the  Pope,  claiming  to  he  vicar  of  God,  and  to  exercise 
absolute  dominion  over  all  nations  and  Churches. 
Untenable  as  these  interpretations  are  critically,  they 
have  had  an  enormous  influence.  At  the  time  of  the 
Pteformation  many  thought  this  the  only  ground  which 
would  justify  them  in  conscience  in  separating  from 
the  old  Church  and  establishing  a new  one.  For  it  is 
said  of  Babylon  or  Eome  in  the  Apocalypse,  “ Come 
out  of  her.  My  people,  that  ye  be  not  partakers  in  her 
sins.”  Even  during  the  last  century  these  views  have 
had  an  enormous  influence,  and  have  built  up  a brazen 
wall  between  Catholics  and  Protestants.  At  this  hour 
they  are  still  deeply  rooted  and  powerful  in  England  and 
America,  and  supported  by  a copious  and  constantly 
increasing  apocalyptic  literature.  But  in  Germany 
they  have  long  since  disappeared  from  the  popular 
belief,  notwithstanding  the  sanction  of  the  Smalkaldic 


Reaction  of  Seventeenth  Century.  93 


Articles,  and  thereby,  as  it  seems  to  me,  one  of  the 
most  serious  hindrances  to  a reunion  of  the  two  reli- 
gions is  removed.^ 

But  at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  it  was 
very  different  in  Germany.  Then  the  song  was  sung 
year  by  year  in  every  Evangelical  congregation — 

“ Defend  us  by  tby  word,  0 Lord, 

From  Pope  and  Paynim’s  murderous  sword,”  ^ 

and  the  events  of  almost  every  year  supplied  a practical 
commentary  on  this  juxtaposition  of  the  two  great 
enemies.  In  Hungary  there  had  been  a bloody  perse- 
cution of  Protestants,  lasting  ten  years,  and  it  was 
notorious  to  all  the  world  how  Louis  xrv.  treated  the 
Eeformed  in  France.  The  preachers  therefore  were 
never  at  a loss  for  opportunities  of  asking  the  prayers 
of  their  congregations  for  co-religionists  suffering  under 
Antichristian  tyranny.  And  the  feeling  thus  engendered 
made  it  impossible  to  bring  theological  negotiations 
for  reunion  before  the  public ; on  the  contrary,  such 
attempts  had  to  be  kept  strictly  private. 

' [See  first  Appendix  in  the  author’s  First  Age  of  Christianity  and  the 
Church  (W.  H.  Allen  and  Co.),  on  “ History  of  Interpretation  of  2 Thess. 
ii.  12.”] 

^ [Cf.  the  popular  Scotch  ditty  quoted  in  Scott’s  Abbot — 

“ The  Paip,  that  Pagan  fu’  o’  pride. 

Hath  blinded  us  ower  lang.”] 


94  Reunion  of  the  Chuj'ches. 

Leibnitz  did  not  become  a Catholic  privately,  as  has 
been  inferred  from  his  unpublished  work  discovered 
in  MS.  some  fifty  years  ago,  the  so-called  Systema 
Tlieologicum.  Tliis  work  was  only  meant  to  show  what 
a thinking  man  might  urge  from  the  Catholic  stand- 
point in  favour  of  the  controverted  Catholic  dogmas. 
He  did  not  indeed  adhere  to  the  Protestant  form  of 
belief,  in  which  there  was  much  that  he  disapproved. 
He  wrote  to  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse  that  had  he  been 
born  in  the  Catholic  Church  he  should  never  have  left 
it,  but  that  he  could  not  join  it  while  certain  doctrines 
continued  to  be  enforced  in  all  their  naked  harshness. 
He  thought  the  Protestants  ought  to  accept  any  doctrine 
proved  to  have  been  universally  received  in  the  ancient 
Church  of  the  Eoman  Empire.  And  in  fact  Molanus 
had  already  managed  to  get  rid  of  so  many  difficulties 
that  Bossuet  thought  the  union  would  be  pretty  well 
accomplished  if  the  other  theologians  assented  to  his 
view.  But  both  Leibnitz  and  Molanus  considered  it 
essential  that  the  Tridentine  Council,  with  its  manifold 
anathemas,  should  be  suspended,  and  the  controverted 
points  examined  and  compared  at  a new  Council, 
composed  of  Catholics  and  Protestants  in  common. 
Leibnitz  appealed  in  support  of  this  view  to  the  con- 


Reaction  of  Seventeenth  Ce^itury.  95 

cessions  made  at  Basle  to  the  Hussites.  A still  better 
example  would  have  been  the  Council  of  Florence, 
where  all  the  points  of  difference  with  the  Greeks  were 
allowed  to  be  re-examined  and  compared  by  both  sides 
together,  without  regard  to  the  decrees  of  the  Council  of 
Lyons  in  1274.^  This  condition  however  proved  fatal 
to  the  whole  scheme. 

The  greatest  difficulties,  the  stumblingblocks  which 
could  not  be  removed,  did  not  even  come  under 
discussion,  or  were  only  incidentally  referred  to.  That 
same  Molanus,  who  showed  himself  so  conciliatory  and 
almost  Catholic  in  matters  of  doctrine,  afterwards 
maintained  against  his  colleagues  that  the  revocation  of 
the  edict  of  Nantes,  and  the  persecution  of  Protestants 
in  France,  with  the  formal  approval  of  these  proceed- 
ings by  the  very  best  of  the  Popes,  Innocent  xi.,  had 
done  more  to  confirm  him  in  drawing  a line  between 
Protestant  and  Papal  doctrine  than  all  the  contro- 
versial divinity  he  had  ever  seen.^  Yet  even  Bossuet 

1 [The  Council  of  Florence  was  accordingly  to  have  been  accepted  on 
both  sides,  had  the  reunion  proved  permanent,  as  the  Eighth  CEcumenical 
Council,  passing  over  all  the  mediaeval  Councils  since  the  separation  of 
East  and  West.  It  is  actually  called  Octavum  Concilium  in  the  first  Latin 
issue  of  the  Acts,  published  in  1526  under  Clement  vir.,  and  thirty  years 
later  in  Cardinal  Pole’s  Reformatio  Anglice,  a collection  of  statutes  made 
by  him  in  his  legatine  capacity,  and  published  at  Rome  in  1566.] 

^ See  the  letter  in  Leukfeld’s  Antiquitates  Amelunstbornenses,  p.  113. 


96  Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

was  unable  to  see,  what  must  have  been  so  clear  to 
every  thinking  man,  that  a Church  which  makes  a rule 
and  principle  of  coercing  conscience  and  exterminating 
heretics  by  the  sword,  can  only  inspire  hatred  and 
detestation.  There  was  one  Pope,  however,  Clement 
XIV.,  who  does  appear  to  have  seen  it.  He  says,  “ What 
a happy  revolution  would  have  been  witnessed,  if, 
instead  of  being  persecuted,  heretics  had  simply  been 
entreated  and  adjured  with  all  possible  gentleness  not 
to  separate  from  the  centre  of  unity ; if  their  difficulties 
had  been  explained  with  kindness,  their  objections 
patiently  listened  to,  and  if,  above  all,  they  had  been 
addressed,  as  religion  itself  speaks,  without  bitterness 
or  pride.”  ^ I don’t  know  whether  Ganganelli  remem- 
bered, when  he  wrote  this,  that  he  was  condemning  a 
long  line  of  his  predecessors,  and  above  all  the  canonized 
Pius  V. 

There  were  other  hostile  and  menacing  circumstances 
in  the  background  of  these  negotiations  for  union,  which 
cast  a dark  shadow  over  every  gleam  of  hope.  Chief 
among  these  was  the  Eoman  notion  of  the  absolute 
power  of  the  Pope,  and  all  attempts  in  apologetic 
writings  and  expositions,  such  as  Bossuet’s  and  Veron’s 

1 Lettere  Interessanti  di  Clemente  XIV.,  Nmezia,  1778,  iv.  60. 


Reaction  of  Seventeenth  Cenhtry.  97 

before  him,  to  explain  this  away,  or  make  it  look 
harmless  and  beneficial,  were  sure  in  the  end  to  prove 
illusory.  No  Protestant  ever  judged  the  Papacy  more 
favourably  than  Leibnitz,  who  wished  to  see  the 
temporal  power  of  the  Popes  still  further  increased  and 
extended  over  the  whole  of  Italy,  that  they  might  be 
the  better  able  to  act  as  European  arbiters,  and  hinder 
wars  of  conquest.  But  an  unlimited  despotic  power, 
such  as  the  Jesuits  and  all  the  Eomanist  party  ascribed 
to  the  Court  of  Eome,  he  considered  equally  intolerable 
and  mischievous.  Then  again  it  was  a standing  reproach 
and  objection  urged  against  every  representation  of 
Catholic  doctrine  put  out  for  the  benefit  of  Protestants, 
that  what  looked  good  and  innocent  on  paper  had  in 
fact,  and  in  its  practical  application  to  popular  life,  a 
very  different  and  most  objectionable  character.  This 
feeling  was  vividly  expressed  in  the  universal  contra- 
diction to  Bossuet’s  representation  evoked  in  Protestant 
Europe.  Even  Molanus  did  not  conceal  his  conviction 
that  the  Papal  Church  was  far  worse  in  worship  than 
in  doctrine,  as  he  had  witnessed  it  in  Italy,  Spain,  and 
other  CathoEc  countries ; it  was,  indeed,  so  corrupted 
that  a thinking  man,  unacquainted  with  the  Eeformed 
doctrine,  could  not  but  suppose  the  Christian  religion 


G 


98  Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

was  a political  invention  of  the  Popes  for  keeping  men 
in  subjection/  The  utter  helplessness  of  the  disputants 
in  this  matter  was  brought  to  light  when  they  came  to 
consider,  in  view  of  a future  union,  how  the  worst 
excrescences  of  a crude  and  immoral  superstition,  by 
the  help  of  which  the  religious  Orders  preyed  upon  the 
people,  could  be  restrained.  But  with  the  independent 
position  of  these  Orders,  and  their  financial  wants, 
nobody  had  any  effective  remedy  to  suggest.  Leibnitz 
says  in  one  place, — “ The  great  question  is  still  this — 
how  far  it  is  allowable  to  wink  at  the  public  corrup- 
tions, especially  when  it  looks  as  if  the  steps  taken 
amounted  to  a tacit  approval  of  them.”^ 

Bossuet’s  biographer.  Cardinal  Bausset,  cannot  ex- 
plain by  what  fatality  these  promising  efforts  after 
union,  after  proceeding  so  far,  and  with  so  rich  a com- 
bination of  talent,  learning,  and  good-will  engaged  in 
the  cause,  came  to  nothing,  and  left  no  trace  behind 
them.  He  thinks  the  interposition  of  Leibnitz  frightened 
the  theologians,  and  ruined  everything.  Far  from  it ; 
on  the  contrary,  Leibnitz  would  have  made  concessions 
which  the  theologians  shrank  from.  The  real  reason 

1 Hiiclc,  Anton  Ulrich,  p.  113. 

® See  Rheinfeld  Brief wechsel,  ed.  Bdmmel,  ii.  78. 


Reaction  of  Seventeenth  Century.  99 

was  a different  one.  In  dealing  with  a Church  where 
the  actual  creed  of  daily  life  differs  so  widely  from  the 
theoretical  creed,  it  is  impossible  to  get  beyond  mere 
theoretical  negotiations.  Bossuet  himself  did  not  choose 
to  see  that ; whenever  any  gross  abuse  was  brought 
before  him,  he  would  always  point  triumphantly  to  the 
substance  of  the  doctrine,  which  contained  nothing 
of  the  kind.  And  yet  the  great  bishop  and  famous 
doctor  might  himself  have  been  pointed  out  as  a 
conspicuous  example  of  ecclesiastical  impotence.  He 
found  himself,  in  his  own  Church,  in  presence  of  a 
doctrine  invented  only  a century  before,  which  could 
not  but  have  a most  decisive  influence  on  the  religious 
position  of  every  Christian, — the  doctrine  that  fear 
alone,  without  love  of  God,  is  sufficient  for  the 
remission  of  sins.  He  considered  this  a most  dangerous 
error,  affecting  the  very  essence  of  Christianity,  and 
wrote  against  it ; but  he  could  not  prevent  the  most 
powerful  of  the  religious  Orders,  with  the  knowledge 
and  support  of  the  Holy  See,  taking  this  error  under 
its  patronage,  and  acting  upon  it  in  the  confessional 
in  his  own  diocese.  Yet  he  found  it  quite  in  order 
that  every  one  who  had  desired  to  administer  Com- 
munion according  to  Christ’s  institution,  simply  for  the 


lOO  Reunion  fo  the  Churches. 

sake  of  union  and  obedience,  should  have  been  excom- 
municated. For  theologians  understand  well  how  to 
strain  out  gnats  and  swallow  camels. 

After  these  fruitless  attempts  of  Bossuet,  Molanus, 
and  Leibnitz,  nothing  further  of  the  kind  was  under- 
taken for  170  years,  either  in  Germany  or  elsewhere.^ 
Men  were  thoroughly  discouraged  and  deterred.  On  the 
Protestant  side,  the  gradual  advance  of  rationahsm 
hindered  any  further  thought  of  union,  and  among 
Catholics  there  could  be  no  idea  of  reviving  those  efforts 
tm  after  the  abolition  of  the  Jesuits  in  1773.  But 
they  had  too  much  to  do  in  setting  their  own  house  in 
order,  and  the  best  of  them  thought  they  could  only 
invite  the  guests  they  wished  to  see  when  the  house  had 
been  cleansed.  In  our  own  day  there  are  phenomena 
which  exhibit  a real  or  apparent  afl&nity  with  the  ideas 
and  efforts  it  is  the  aim  of  these  Lectures  to  suggest  to 
the  minds  of  believing  Christians.  Many  would  reckon 
among  these  the  “ Evangelical  Alliance,”  a British  and 
American  product  of  a kind  of  unionist  sentiment. 
But  this  association,  of  which  very  little  has  been 
heard  lately,  has  confined  itself  to  a mere  external 

' [The  correspondence  of  Archbishop  Wake  with  the  doctors  of  the 
Sorbonne  early  in  the  eighteenth  century  had  a similar  aim,  though  it  led 
to  no  result.] 


Reaction  of  Seventeenth  Century.  loi 

combination  and  common  action  of  all  Protestant 
communities  for  an  offensive  and  defensive  alliance 
against  the  ancient  Churches.  The  fusion  of  the 
Lutheran  and  Eeformed  Churches  brought  about  by 
Prederick-William  ill.  has  remained  a mere  fragmentary 
•work,  and  has  led  to  internal  divisions,  the  end  of 
which  is  yet  to  be  seen ; and  one  of  the  most  eminent 
Protestant  theologians,  Kahnis,  has  declared  oidy  this 
year  that  “ the  introduction  of  the  union  into  the 
Lutheran  national  Churches  of  Germany,  Eussia,  and 
Scandinavia,  would  be  the  beginning  of  incurable 
discords  which  would  probably  end  in  their  dissolution. 
To  carry  it  out  generally  is  an  impossibility.”  ^ The 
fundamental  principle  of  this  union,  which  is  to  leave 
the  most  opposite  doctrines  to  co-exist  side  by  side, 
unmodified  and  unreconciled,  and  let  every  one  choose 
between  them,  has  not  succeeded. 

The  recently  formed  community  of  the  Irvingites 
might  be  regarded  as  in  some  sense  a favourable  symp- 
tom, pointing  to  hopes  of  union.  It  includes  some 
highly  respectable  men,  familiar  with  ecclesiastical  anti- 
quity. The  exclusive  product  of  a Protestant  soil,  and 
founded  by  men  trained  in  Protestant  belief,  it  approxi- 

' Christenthum  und  Lutlverthum,  Leipsic,  1872. 


102  Rezinion  of  the  Churches. 

mates  in  essential  points  to  the  ancient  Churches  of 
East  and  West.  It  reminds  one  strongly  of  a pheno- 
menon of  the  second  century,  Montanism.  Perhaps 
it  is  still  possible  to  strip  off  from  the  system  much 
which  appears  to  those  who  look  at  it  from  without 
too  fantastical  and  directly  contradictory  to  the  mind 
of  the  ancient  Church,  such  as  the  revival  of  the 
Apostolate,  and  the  immediate  expectation  of  the  great 
crisis  of  the  world’s  history  intimated  in  Scripture. 

Where  faith  and  love  are  found,  there  hope  cannot 
be  absent.  He  who  believes  in  Christ,  and  loves  his 
country  and  Christians  of  all  confessions,  cannot  divest 
himself  of  the  hope  that  no  distant  future  may  reveal  a 
Church  which,  as  the  genuine  heir  and  representative 
of  the  Church  of  the  early  centuries,  may  have  room 
and  power  of  attraction  for  those  who  are  now  sepa- 
rated ; a Church  where  liberty  will  be  reconciled  with 
order,  discipline,  morality,  and  unity  of  faith  with 
science  and  freedom  of  inquiry. 


LECTUEE  VI 

THE  ENGLISH  REFOEMATION,  ITS  NATURE  AND  RESULTS. 

T tie  beginning  of  the  Eeformation  the  island 


kingdom  of  England  was  far  behind-hand  in 
power,  wealth,  and  population  ; indeed,  150  years  later 
it  had  only  , five  million  inhabitants.  It  possessed  no 
fleets,  no  manufactures,  no  colonies,  and  no  army. 
But  it  was  better  prepared  ecclesiastically  than  the 
Latin  countries  for  receiving  the  seed  brought  over 
from  Germany.  From  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, and  constantly  during  the  fourteenth,  it  had 
resisted  the  encroachments  and  extortionate  demands 
of  the  Eoman  Court  with  the  united  force  of  King 
and  Parliament.  And  Wycliffe,  one  of  Luther’s 
forerunners,  and  the  Lollard  sect,  had  disseminated 
doctrines  which  partly  corresponded  with  those  pro- 
claimed at  "Wittenberg.  But  it  was  from  above,  and 
not  from  beneath,  as  in  Germany,  from  the  Crown, 


103 


104  Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

not  from  the  people,  that  the  ecclesiastical  revolution 
in  England  received  its  impulse,  rule,  and  form.  No 
man  of  first-rate  eminence  appeared — no  Luther,  or 
Calvin,  or  Melanchthon — to  take  the  lead  of  the  move- 
ment. Minds  of  an  inferior  order,  possessed  with  the 
ideas  struck  out  at  Wittenberg  and  Zurich,  served  as 
the  instruments  for  naturalizing  those  principles  in 
England  and  effecting  the  ecclesiastical  changes. 

It  is  well  known  that  what  brought  about  the  breach 
with  Eome  and  the  transference  of  the  papal  supremacy 
to  the  King  was  the  affair  of  Henry  vill.’s  divorce. 
The  whole  English  clergy  submitted,  renounced  the 
Pope,  and  promised  to  regard  him  henceforth  only  as 
Bishop  of  Pome.  One  bishop  alone,  Fisher  of  Eochester, 
resisted,  and  went  to  the  scaffold.  There  was  no  inten- 
tion, however,  of  separating  from  communion  with  the 
Pope ; and  his  rights  in  relation  to  the  universal  Church, 
such  as  the  summoning  and  presiding  over  General 
Councils,  were  not  called  in  question.  The  people 
were  expressly  assured  that  England  continued  to  be 
a portion  of  the  Catholic  Church,  of  which  the  Eoman 
Church  was  another  branch.’'  Nor  was  there  any 
change  of  doctrine  introduced.  But  a series  of  Acts 

1 In  the  Institution  of  a Christian  Man,  1537,  approved  hy  twenty-one 
Bishops.  See  Formularies  of  Faith  (Oxford,  1825),  p.  55. 


The  English  Reforjnation.  105 

were  passed — the  Parliament  being  entirely  at  one  with 
the  King — which  extended  the  royal  authority  over  the 
Church  further,  until  at  last  all  ecclesiastical  power 
seemed  to  be  derived  from  the  Crown.  The  notion 
invented  by  the  sycophants  of  Pome  since  the 
thirteenth  centxiry,  that  the  episcopal  was  a mere 
derivation  from  the  papal  authority,  was  now  in  Eng- 
land transferred  to  the  Crown. 

Clement  vii.  had  already  excommunicated  the  King, 
but  in  1538  appeared  a P)ull  of  his  successor,  Paul  ill., 
which  excited  unh^ersal  astonishment,  for  it  almost 
looked  as  if  he  wished  to  alienate  the  whole  nation 
from  him,  and  drive  it  into  complete  separation  from 
the  See  of  Pome.  He  not  only  deposed  the  King  and 
consigned  him  to  eternal  perdition,  if  he  did  not 
appear  before  his  tribunal,  hut  laid  all  England 
under  an  interdict,  which  means,  according  to  Poman 
teaching,  that  a Pope  punishes  and  imperils  the 
salvation  of  millions  of  innocent  persons  for  the  sins 
of  one  or  a few  guilty  persons.  He  forbade  all  divine 
worship  and  administration  of  sacraments,^  forbade  every 
Englishman  to  obey  any  royal  command,  deprived  all 

1 [There  are  some  exceptions  to  this  rule.  Baptism  can  be  administered 
to  children,  and  the  last  sacraments  to  the  dying,  under  an  interdict,  and 
confessions  can  be  heard. — Cf.  Soglia,  Instit.  Jur.  Priv.  Eccl.,  Paris,  p.  556.] 


io6  Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

the  King’s  adherents  of  their  civil  rights,  abrogated  all 
treaties  made  with  them  or  oaths  sworn  to  them,  pro- 
hibited all  traffic  with  them,  and  gave  up  the  property 
of  all  Englishmen  to  he  plundered  by  foreigners.  And 
this  was  done  in  1538,  when  a great  part  of  Germany 
and  Switzerland,  and  the  northern  kingdoms,  had 
already  risen  against  Eome,  and  thousands  in  Europe 
were  eager  to  make  capital  out  of  such  weak  points  of 
the  Eoman  See,  and  thus  increase  the  widely-spread 
abhorrence  of  the  Curia.  It  might  really  be  regarded 
as  an  example  of  judicial  blindness. 

After  Henry’s  death  in  1547  the  Eeformation  was 
carried  further  in  a Protestant  sense  under  Edward  VT., 
always  from  above,  by  means  of  the  royal  supremacy 
over  the  Church.  Archbishop  Cranmer,  and  Somerset, 
who  was  regent  for  his  nephew,  a boy  of  ten  years  old, 
worked  together,  not  without  opposition  from  the  mass 
of  the  people,  who  were  still  Catholic  in  their 
sympathies ; and  there  w^ere  revolts,  which  had  to  be 
extinguished  in  blood.  For  the  nobility  seized  the 
Church  property,  the  country  people  took  up  arms,  the 
class  of  small  landowners  disappeared,  and  tenant- 
farmers  took  their  place.  But  among  the  clergy  there 
was  only  passive  submission. 


The  Ejiglish  Reformation,  107 

The  whole  edifice  of  the  new  religion  collapsed  when 
Mar}^,  the  daughter  of  a Spanish  mother  and  wife  of 
Philip  II.  of  Spain,  succeeded  to  the  throne  on  the  early 
death  of  Edward.  Unreservedly  devoted  to  the  Pope, 
full  of  burning  hatred  against  the  new  heresy,  and  hard 
and  pitiless  as  her  father,  she  at  once  broke  the  promise 
given  to  the  people,  -when  they  rose  in  her  favour,  of 
leaving  the  laws  of  the  land  unaltered.  She  surrounded 
herself  with  like-minded  counsellors,  and  a ParKament 
elected  under  strong  government  influence  seconded  all 
her  plans.  Cardinal  Pole  appeared,  as  papal  legate,  to 
absolve  the  nation  from  the  anathemas  of  Pome,  and 
England  found  itself  again  under  the  dominion  of  the 
Pope.  The  nation  was  soon  taught  at  how  dear  a price 
of  human  life  it  had  again  become  Eoman.  Hitherto 
the  Protestant  doctrine  had  made  little  advance  in  the 
minds  of  the  people,  the  majority  of  whom  adhered  to 
their  ancestral  faith  ; the  decided  Protestants  could  be 
named  and  counted.  But  now  the  papal  legate. 
Cardinal  Pole,  the  man  who  ruled  England  both  in 
religious  and  civil  matters,  was  himself  charged  with 
suspicion  of  heresy  by  the  terrible  Paul  rv. — the  Pope 
who  saw  no  salvation  for  Italy  or  the  world  except  in 
the  dungeons  and  piles  of  the  Inquisition, — and  was 


I o8  Reunion  of  the  CJmrches. 

summoned  to  Eome  to  answer  for  his  faith.  He  did 
not  go,  hut  left  his  implacable  persecution  and  exter- 
mination of  heretics  to  hear  wdtness  before  the  Pope 
and  the  Eoman  Inquisition  to  his  unimpeachable 
orthodoxy.  And  thus  within  three  years  about  300 
persons  were  burnt,  includiug  some  bishops,  several 
priests,  and  fifty-five  women. 

Hundreds  of  thousands  of  Protestant  writings  scat- 
tered  over  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land,  and 
disseminated  in  the  cottages  of  the  poor,  would  not 
have  done  so  much  to  strengthen  the  Protestant 
doctrine  as  the  spectacle  of  the  fires  of  Smithfield,  and 
the  testimony  borne  by  so  many  men  and  women,  most 
of  whom  could  have  purchased  their  lives  by  recanta- 
tion, going  with  such  wonderful  courage  to  the  stake. 
The  impression  then  made  has  remained  to  this  day 
powerfully  and  indelibly  impressed  on  the  popular 
mind.  And  if  the  hatred  of  everything  called  Popery 
has  shown  itself  for  the  last  three  centuries  stronger 
and  deeper  in  England  than  in  any  other  nation,  Mary 
and  her  counsellors  are  responsible  for  the  origin  of  a 
feeling  which  was  no  doubt  afterwards  intensified  by 
the  Gunpowder  Plot. 

Mary  carried  wdth  her  to  the  grave  the  hatred  and 


The  English  Refoinnation.  1 09 

detestation  of  her  people;  and  her  sister  Elizabeth 
mounted  the  throne  in  1558  amid  loud  and  universal 
rejoicings.  The  re-establishment  of  papal  domination 
had  not  obtained  much  favour  even  among  the  poprdace, 
whose  sympathies  were  Catholic,  and  Paul  iv.  himself 
took  care  that  the  new  Queen  should  have  no  choice. 
He  made  it  a question  of  life  and  death  for  her  to 
abjure  Eome.  When  she  announced  her  accession  to 
him,  he  replied  by  censuring  her  “ presumption,”  and 
declaring  that  she  had  been  stigmatized  by  his  prede- 
cessors as  illegitimate,  and  therefore  incapable  of 
succeeding,  and  that  the  decision  on  the  subject 
belonged  to  him  alone  as  suzerain  of  England,  a 
pretension  of  Eome  long  since  rejected  by  Parliament. 

The  supremacy  over  the  Church  which  her  father 
and  brother  had  enjoyed  was  now  again  assigned  by 
Parhament  to  the  Queen,  who  thereby  took  the  place 
of  the  Pope.  The  Act  of  Uniformity  imposed  on  aE 
Churches  the  use  of  the  Liturgy  of  Edward  vi.,  modified 
in  a Catholic  seuse.^  Every  clergyman  was  required, 
on  pain  of  deprivation,  to  take  the  Oath  of  Eoyal 

J [That  is,  the  Second  Liturgy  of  Edward  vi.  It  had  been  the  Queen’s 
original  wish  and  intention  to  restore  the  First,  and  with  some  Catholic 
additions ; hut  it  was  found  necessary  to  abandon  the  design,  in  order  to 
conciliate  the  extreme,  or,  as  it  was  afterwards  called,  Puritan  party. — 
See  Hook’s  Life  of  Archbishop  Parker,  pp.  158  sjg.] 


I lo  Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

Supremacy,  and  out  of  9000  only  about  189,  or  one  in 
fifty,  refused  it/  Most  of  the  bishops  refused,  and  new 
ones  were  appointed  and  validly  ordained,  so  that  the 
succession  was  not  interrupted.  A short  formxilary  of 
faith,  in  Thirty-nine  Articles,  setting  forth  substan- 
tially the  Protestant  doctrine,  hut  in  modified  form  and 
with  many  compromises,  became  law.  And  thus  the 
Eeformation  in  England  and  the  edifice  of  the  English 
episcopal  Church  was  completed.  It  differed  from  aU 
reformed  Churches  of  the  Continent,  hut  wished  to 
remain  in  connexion  with  them ; and  the  political 
situation  forced  Elizabeth  more  and  more  into  the  posi- 
tion of  a protector  of  European  Protestantism  generally. 

Meanwhile  the  number  of  Catholics  was  still  con- 
siderable, but  as  all  churches  and  chapels  belonged  to 
the  dominant  religion,  and  absence  from  service  was 
punished  with  fines,  they  took  part  in  public  worship ; 
and  thus  to  all  outward  appearance  there  seemed  to  be 
but  one  Church  in  the  country,  and  every  likelihood  of 
the  old  faith  dying  out  in  one  or  two  generations.  This 
state  of  things  lasted  till  about  1570,  when  new  priests, 

1 [This  must  be  taken  with  some  reserve.  The  Supremacy  Oath  was 
certainly  imposed  by  law  from  the  first ; but  there  is  reason  to  believe 
that  for  many  years  of  Elizabeth’s  reign  the  majority  of  the  clergy 
abstained  from  taking  it,  with  the  tacit  connivance  of  the  Government. 
There  is  no  evidence  of  more  than  about  800  being  sworn  in  1559.] 


The  E^iglish  Reformation.  1 1 1 

trained  in  the  strictest  Eoman  system,  came  to  England 
from  the  clerical  seminaries  established  on  the  Con- 
tinent, and  the  Jesuits  also  commenced  their  labours 
there.  Then,  for  the  first  time,  many  separated  them- 
selves from  the  national  worship ; and  then,  too, 
appeared  the  Bull  of  Pius  v.,  which  not  only  deposed 
Elizabeth,  but  forbade  all  Englishmen  to  acknowledge 
her  on  pain  of  excommunication,  without,  however, 
proposing  any  other  king  or  regent  for  their  allegiance. 
And  thus  all  Catholics  who  did  not  rebel  were  excom- 
municated, and  it  seemed  to  be  the  sole  aim  of  the 
Pope,  who  had  already  tried  to  get  Elizabeth  put  out 
of  the  way  by  assassination,  to  produce  a general 
confusion  and  bloody  civil  war  in  England. 

The  most  zealous  of  the  Papal  party  wanted  to  make 
Philip  of  Spain  master  of  England.  A series  of  plots, 
conspiracies,  and  revolts  followed.  Elizabeth  could  say 
with  truth  that  her  life  was  daily  threatened,  and  more 
than  any  other  in  Europe.  A new  Bull  of  Sixtus  v., 
issued  in  1588  in  support  of  the  Spanish  invasion, 
renewed  her  deposition,  on  the  express  ground  that  the 
Pope  alone  was  entitled  to  decide  who  should  wear 
the  English  crown.^  Well  might  Urban  vill.  say  after- 

* [It  is  remarkable,  however,  that  Sixtus  v.,  one  of  the  ablest  Popes  of 


1 I 2 


Reunion  of  the  Churches. 


wards  that  the  Popes,  his  predecessors,  were  respon- 
sible for  the  loss  of  England^  The  laws  against  foreign 
priests  were  now  made  more  stringent,  and  the  mere 
performance  of  sacerdotal  functions  became  a capital 
offence.  A considerable  n^^mber  of  priests  were  actually 
executed,  who  showed  great  constancy  in  death.  The 
first  who  were  condemned  were  questioned  as  to 
whether  they  would  obey  the  Pope  or  the  laws  of  the 
land  in  civil  matters,  and  those  who  answered  in  the 
latter  sense  were  spared. 

Meanwhile  the  Jesuits  had  developed  their  doctrine 
of  tyrannicide  into  a system,  and  had  disseminated  it 
both  by  writing  and  orally.  They  taught  that,  as  the 
Pope  has  a divine  right,  in  the  interest  of  religion,  to 
depose  monarchs  and  annul  all  their  official  acts,  the 
deposed  monarch,  if  he  tries  to  retain  his  dignity,  is  an 
usurper  and  tyrant,  and  may  he  put  to  death.  That 
this  teaching  endangered  the  life  of  every  prince  dis- 

the  post-Reformation  era,  personally  entertained  a strong  sympatliy  for 
Elizabeth,  and  to  the  last  cherished  hopes  of  her  conversion.  At  one  time 
he  even  requested  Henry  in.  of  France  to  enter  into  communication  -with 
her  on  the  subject,  and  he  seems  to  have  given  only  a reluctant  sanction 
to  the  Spanish  Armada.  On  the  other  hand,  Elizabeth,  when  urged  by 
her  ministers  to  marry,  was  wont  to  reply,  “ I know  of  but  one  man 
worthy  of  my  hand,  and  that  is  Sixtus  v.” — Cf.  Hiibner’s  Life  and  Times 
of  Sixtus  V.,  passim.] 

1 [A  similar  remark  is  attributed  to  Pius  iv.  in  reference  to  Paul  w.’s 
policy.] 


The  English  Reformation.  1 1 3 

pleasing  to  the  Court  of  Eome  was  shown  in  the 
naurder  of  Henry  ill.  of  France,  and  the  attempts 
on  the  life  of  Henry  iv.,  and  of  William  of  Orange, 
for  these  two  princes  also  at  last  fell  beneath  the 
daggers  of  fanatics.  And  if  there  was  already  a 
disposition  in  England  to  look  on  every  Catholic 
as  a born  enemy  of  the  State  and  its  rulers,  this 
was  further  increased  by  the  Gunpowder  Plot  at 
the  beginning  of  James  i.’s  reign,  which  filled  up  the 
measure  of  the  misfortunes  of  the  unhappy  adherents 
of  the  old  Church.  The  discovery  of  this  Satanic  plot 
for  blowing  up  King  and  Parliament  was  commemo- 
rated in  England  by  a Church  festival,  only  recently 
abolished.  Pope  Clement  viii.,  who  had  some  years 
previously  urged  Henry  iv.  to  assist  the  King  of  Spain 
in  conquering  England,  had  just  before  directed  the 
Catholics  to  hinder  the  accession  of  James,  and  Eng- 
lish Jesuits  were  deeply  implicated  in  the  plot,  of 
whom  two  were  found  guilty  and  executed,  and  one 
escaped.  King  J ames,  with  the  view  of  providing  some 
protection  for  his  own  life  and  that  of  his  son,  intro- 
duced, in  concurrence  with  Parliament,  a special  oath 
for  Catholics — the  Oath  of  Allegiance.  They  were  to 
abjure,  as  impious  and  heretical,  the  doctrine  that  the 


H 


1 1 4 Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

Pope  can  depose  sovereigns  and  absolve  subjects  from 
their  oath  of  allegiance,  and  that  princes  excommuni- 
cated by  the  Pope  may  be  deposed  and  murdered.  The 
sorely  oppressed  Catholics,  whose  condition  had  been 
rendered  much  worse  by  the  last  conspiracy,  were  to 
gain  some  toleration  by  taking  this  oath ; but  Paul  v. 
forbade  their  taking  it  on  pain  of  damnation,  and  all 
Catholics  who  took  it  were  to  be  refused  the  sacra- 
ments. And  Cardinal  Bellarmine  wrote  a treatise  to 
prove  its  unlawfulness. 

Meanwhile  no  express  declaration  of  the  Eoman 
Court,  explaining  in  what  the  soul-destroying  char- 
acter of  the  oath  consisted,  could  be  obtained  by  any 
entreaties,  and  many  priests  suffered  death  rather  than 
take  it.  James,  who,  from  various  political  grounds, 
and  partly  from  fear,  wished  to  be  on  peaceable  terms 
with  the  See  of  Eome,  intimated  to  the  Pope,  through 
the  French  ambassador,  that  he  would  acknowdedge 
him  as  the  first  bishop  and  president  of  the  Church, 
if  he  would  renounce  the  arrogant  claim  to  depose 
sovereigns.  But  Paul  replied  that  he  could  not  do  so 
without  falling  into  heresy  himself.  This  conduct  of  the 
Pope’s  made  the  condition  of  Catholics  in  England  a 
terribly  painful  one — the  priests  threatened  with  death 


The  English  Reformation. 


115 

on  tlie  scaffold,  and  the  laity  objects  of  universal  sus- 
picion, detested  by  their  fellow-countrymen  and  sub- 
jected to  heavy  exactions.  There  seemed  no  prospect 
left  them  but  of  constant  diminution  and  gradual 
extinction ; and  in  fact  they  had  dwindled  down  to 
150,000  by  1630,  according  to  the  report  of  the  Papal 
nuncio,  Panzani.  Well  might  they  represent  to  Pome, 
through  Father  Leander,  that  they  had  suffered  more 
for  the  Papacy  than  any  other  Catholics.^  Father 
Leander  also  represented  that  Charles  i.  was  surprised 
to  find  that  doctrines  allowed  in  France  were  con- 
demned in  England.  It  was  universally  said  that  the 

1 [Father  Leander,  an  English  Benedictine,  was  sent  to  England  by 
Urban  viii.  in  1632,  and  Father  Panzani,  an  Oratorian  of  Arezzo,  in  1634, 
both  with  the  sanction  of  the  Government,  as  well  to  examine  and  report 
on  the  condition  of  the  English  Roman  Catholics  as  on  the  true  state 
of  the  Church  of  England.  On  the  latter  point  they  reported  very 
favourably,  and  the  idea  of  a reunion  was  seriously  entertained  on  both 
sides,  though  it  eventually  fell  through,  chiefly  owing  to  the  bitter  oppo- 
sition of  the  Jesuits  on  one  side,  and  the  Puritans  on  the  other.  Father 
Leander  reports  of  the  Anglicans  : “ They  agree  in  all  the  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity  and  Incarnation  and  true  Deity  of  our  Blessed  Saviour ; in  the 
points  of  Providence,  predestination,  j nstitication,  necessity  of  good  works, 
co-operation  of  free  will  with  the  grace  of  God.  They  admit  the  first  four 
General  Councils,  the  three  authentic  symbols  of  the  Apostles,  Nice  or 
Constantinople,  and  of  St.  Athanasius,  as  they  are  received  in  the  Roman 
Church : they  reverence  the  primitive  Church  and  unanimous  consent  of 
the  ancient  Fathers,  and  all  traditions  and  ceremonies  which  can  be  suflfl- 
ciently  proved  by  testimony  of  antiquity  ; they  admit  a settled  liturgy 
taken  out  of  the  Roman  liturgy,  distinction  of  orders,  bishops,  priests, 
and  deacons,  in  distinct  habits  from  the  laity,  and  divers  other  points  in 
which  no  transmarine  Protestants  do  agree.” — Clarendon  State  Papers, 
vol.  i.  p.  207  ; quoted  also  in  Charles  Butler's  Book  of  the  Roman  Catholic 


1 1 6 Reunion  of  the  CJmrches. 

Popes  vindicated  the  doctrines  whereby  the  authors  of 
the  Gunpowder  Plot  excused  their  murderous  attack 
on  the  King  and  the  nobility. 

But  now,  as  before,  it  was  all  in  vain.  The  Popes 
had  again  and  again  been  told  that  the  notion  of 
murder  committed  in  the  interests  of  religion  being 
meritorious,  was  so  widely  spread,  so  disgraceful  and 
injurious  to  Catholicism,  and  so  strongly  confirmed  by 
Jesuit  writings,  that  there  was  urgent  need  for  one 
Pope  at  least  publicly  and  solemnly  to  condemn  this 
error.  But  Eome  held  her  peace ; it  was  impossible 
even  to  get  the  worst  of  the  Jesuit  writings  which 
recommended  tyrannicide  placed  on  the  Index. 

The  events  which  occurred  in  Ireland  served  to  in- 
tensify the  hatred  of  the  English  nation  against  Eome 
and  the  CathoEcs,  and  to  exhibit  the  Popes  as  the  most 
irreconcilable  and  dangerous  enemies  of  England.  On 

Church,  p.  2.  Aud  he  adds  : “ Union  seemeth  possible  enough,  if  the 
points  were  discussed  in  an  assembly  of  moderate  men,  without  contention 
or  desire  of  victory,  but  out  of  a sincere  desire  of  Christian  union  ; espe- 
ciall)’’  since  the  learneder  sort  of  Protestants  hold  this  difference  to  be  no 
impediment  to  salvation,  and  grant  besides  that  the  Church  of  Rome  is 
a true  member  of  the  Church  of  Christ.” — Ibid.  p.  208.  On  the  other 
hand,  Montague,  Bishop  of  Chichester,  assured  Panzani  that  only  three 
out  of  the  whole  bench  of  Bishops  could  be  considered  opposed  to  the 
scheme. — Panmni’s  Memoirs,  p.  246.  It  is  clear  from  Heylin’s  Life  of 
Laud  that  the  primate  was  favom-ably  disposed  towards  it.  See  for  further 
infonnation  on  these  negotiations  an  interesting  essay  on  “1636  and  1866,” 
in  Essays  on  Reunion,  Hayes,  1867,  and  cf.  hifra,  p.  121.] 


The  English  Reformation.  1 1 7 

the  pretext  that  the  Emperor  Constantine  had  given  all 
islands  to  the  Pope,  Adrian  iv.  had  bestowed  Ireland  on 
Henry  ii.,  king  of  England.  At  the  time  of  the  Wars 
of  the  Eoses  the  English  rule  over  Ireland  had  again 
collapsed.  The  Popes  had  impressed  on  the  Irish  that 
their  island  was  a papal  fief  over  which  they  exercised 
supreme  rights  of  suzerainty,  and  accordingly,  when 
the  English  kings  ceased  to  discharge  the  duties  of 
vassals,  Gregory  xiii.  had  sent  an  English  theologian, 
Sanders,  as  his  legate  to  Ireland,  with  Italian  officers, 
and  appointed  an  Irish  general,  Desmond,  to  rouse  the 
inhabitants,  who  had  been  deprived  of  the  exercise  of 
Catholic  worship  without  having  become  Protestants, 
and  to  lead  them  in  a holy  war  against  England.  The 
enterprise  failed,  and  at  the  death  of  Elizabeth  in  1603 
Ireland  was  completely  subjected  to  England. 

Then  broke  out  the  insurrection  of  1642,  and  a mas- 
sacre followed  in  which  several  thousand  Protestants 
were  killed.  A papal  nuncio,  Euniccini,  came,  and  for 
some  time  acquired  possession  of' supreme  power.  Ire- 
land was  t©  be  entirely  separated  from  England,  and 
annexed  either  to  Spain  or  to  some  Italian  principabty 
under  the  suzerainty  of  the  Pope.^  Cromwell’s  con- 

^ Ranke,  Eng.  Gesch.,  Werke,  vol.  xvii.  p.  26. 


1 18  Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

quest  of  Ireland  put  an  end  to  this  scheme.  At  the 
Eestoration  in  1660,  a prospect  was  held  out  to  the 
Irish  Catholics  of  religious  toleration  and  regaining 
their  property,  on  condition  of  their  taking  an  oath  of 
allegiance  to  the  King,  and  repudiating  all  right  of  the 
Pope  to  depose  him  or  absolve  his  subjects  from  the 
duty  of  civil  obedience.  A similar  declaration  had 
been  required  of  the  English  Catholics  in  1647  by 
Parliament,  on  the  motion  of  Lord  Fairfax,  as  the  con- 
dition of  religious  toleration.  But  Innocent  x.  had  at 
once  strictly  forbidden  them  to  accept  any  declaration 
of  the  kind,  and  excommunicated  those  who  had  akeady 
subscribed  it.  And  now  almost  the  whole  property  of 
Catholics  and  the  social  existence  of  the  nobility  was 
at  stake  in  Ireland.  But  the  papal  nuncio  at  Brussels, 
and  the  Irish  Bishops  who  were  under  him,  condemned 
in  accordance  with  papal  teaching  the  “ Eemonstrance,” 
which  121  nobles  had  already  signed.  The  theologians 
who  drew  it  up,  Walsh,  Carew,  and  Coppinger,  were 
persecuted  and  censured,  and  thus  the  fate  of  Ireland 
was  sealed  for  centuries.  This  result  was  most  grati- 
fying to  the  Cromwellian  soldiers  and  English  and 
Scotch  adventurers,  who  had  come  into  possession 
of  the  property  through  the  war  aud  confiscations. 


The  English  Reformation.  1 1 9 

King  Charles  confirmed  them  in  their  possessions,  and 
also  confirmed  the  suppression  of  Catholic  worship. 
The  Catholic  nobility  of  Ireland  fell,  the  entire  property 
passed  into  Protestant  hands,  and  the  mass  of  the 
Catholic  population  sank  into  an  ignorant  and  barbar- 
ous proletariate.  But  the  Pope’s  right  to  depose  kings, 
annul  oaths,  and  command  rebellion,  was  preserved 
inviolate  ! 

Elizabeth  and  her  advisers  had  attempted  to  weld 
together  in  the  edifice  of  their  State  Church  foreign  and 
mutually  hostile  elements,  which  were  now  sure  to 
conflict  with  each  other.  The  notion  of  two  or  more 
different  Churches  dwelling  peacefully  side  by  side  was 
at  that  time  hardly  thought  conceivable,  and  only 
admitted  as  a last  resource,  under  pressure  of  extreme 
necessity.  And  therefore  the  national  Church  had  to  be 
made  capacious  enough  to  embrace  and  tolerate  in  its 
bosom  the  two  opposite  parties  already  existing  in 
England, — the  Calvinist  and  the  Catholic. 

Calvinism,  chiefly  represented  by  the  exiles  who  had 
returned  from  Switzerland  after  Mary’s  death,  and 
forced  their  way  into  Church  offices  under  Elizabeth, 
developed  more  and  more  into  Puritanism  from  the  end 
of  the  sixteenth  century ; and  the  Puritans  began  to 


120  Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

agitate  for  a new  reformation  of  the  Church,  on  the 
principle  of  receding  to  the  furthest  possible  distance 
from  Catholic  rites  and  forms.  In  opposition  to  this 
movement  a Catholicizing  school,  appealing  to  the 
ancient  Church,  developed  itself  from  about  1618;  and 
through  the  favour  of  James  l.  and  Charles  l.,  who  saw 
in  a hierarchical  organization  and  a strong  episcopate 
a powerful  support  of  the  monarchy,  the  episcopal  sees 
were  filled  with  members  of  this  school  The  Laudian 
school,  as  it  may  be  named  after  one  of  its  most 
prominent  representatives,  the  unfortunate  Archbishop 
Laud,  became,  in  the  period  between  about  1620  and 
1670,  the  predecessor  of  the  “ Oxford  ” or  “ Eitualistic  ” 
school  of  to-day,  and  may  be  said  to  have  formed  a 
permanent  unionist  academy,  although  matters  neyer 
advanced  in  England  to  the  stage  of  regular  negotiations, 
as  was  afterwards  the  case  in  Germany.  In  the  writings 
of  these  men,  Andrewes,  Montague,  Laud,  Bramhall, 
Hammond,  Thorndyke,  and  others,  we  meet  with 
manifold  expressions  of  a desire  for  reunion,  and  a 
hope  of  its  accomplishment.  It  would  be  impossible 
to  commend  the  unity  of  the  Church  more  eloquently 
and  emphatically  than,  e,.q.  Hammond  has  done,  wlio 
regards  it  as  the  noblest  gift  of  God,  the  grace  above 


The  English  Reformation.  1 2 1 

all  graces,  the  duty  above  all  duties,  the  fulness  of 
heavenly  joy  ; while  he  regards  the  Churches  and 
religious  parties  of  his  own  day  as  the  palpitating  and 
violently  dismembered  limbs  of  a living  body,  which 
present  the  most  revolting  and  painful  spectacle,  as 
though  tom  asunder  on  the  rack.  And  the  complaint 
constantly  recurs  in  the  works  of  these  writers, — “ If 
only  Eome  would  be  less  hard,  and  not  lay  on  us 
burdens  we  cannot  hear,  and  make  demands  which 
are  intolerable.”  The  English  bishops  told  Panzani, 
who  was  sent  as  papal  agent  in  1634,  that  two  parties 
were  labouring  to  hinder  the  union  of  the  English 
and  Eoman  Churches,  viz.,  the  Puritans  and  the 
Jesuits.^ 

But  the  bishops  and  theologians  stood  almost  alone 
in  the  nation  with  their  Catholic  tendencies,  so  powerful 
had  the  Protestant  spirit,  in  its  crudest  form,  become 
in  England  through  the  influence  of  events,  and  so 
deeply  had  fear,  horror,  and  hatred  of  everything 
connected  with  the  Papacy  sunk  into  the  popular 
mind.  The  charge  against  Archbishop  Laud,  of  having 
aimed  at  an  union  of  the  English  Church  with  Eome, 
brought  the  primate  of  the  Established  Church  to  the 

^ [See  above,  p.  115,  note.^ 


122 


Reunion  of  the  Churches. 


Mock ; and  it  is  worth  remarking  that  his  not  having 
regarded  the  Pope  as  Antichrist  formed  one  item  in  the 
indictment.  It  availed  him  nothing  that  he  had 
declined  the  offer  of  a Cardinars  hat,  and  had  written 
a learned  work  against  the  Papacy. 

The  Episcopal  Church,  closely  bound  up  with  the 
monarchy,  shared  its  fall,  and  Puritanism  triumphed 
with  its  Calvinistic  doctrine,  its  rejection  of  episcopacy, 
sacrifice,  and  priesthood,  and  its  dislike  of  religious 
symbolism  and  liturgical  worship.  But  it  was  soon 
weakened  by  internal  dissensions,  three  great  Puritan 
sects — the  Presbyterians,  Independents,  and  Baptists — 
mutually  assailing  one  another,  and  with  the  fall  of  the 
Commonwealth  after  twelve  years  its  dominion  also 
came  to  an  end.  At  the  Eestoration,  the  Episcopal 
Church  was  re-established  as  w'ell  as  the  monarchy, 
and  with  the  full  approval  of  the  nation,  which  was 
heartily  sick  of  sectarian  domination.  In  1662  two 
thousand  Puritan  ministers  suffered  deprivation  rather 
than  submit  to  the  ritual  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  as 
enjoined  by  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  just  as  twelve  years 
before  many  thousands  of  the  Anglican  clergy  had 
resigned  their  benefices  rather  than  accept  the  Puritan 
dogmas  and  forms.  What  a contrast  with  the  Catholic 


The  Ejiglish  Refor^nation.  123 

clergy  in  Elizabetli’s  reign,  when  among  9400  not  200 
could  be  found  to  sacrifice  their  benefices  rather  than 
submit  to  the  Protestant  doctrine  ! 

This  was  the  sixth  great  change  in  the  English 
Church  since  the  beginning  of  the  Eeformation,  and 
thenceforth  its  continuity  has  not  again  been  inter- 
rupted, however  great  the  fluctuation  of  religious  views 
was  and  is  among  its  members.  The  greatest  change 
of  feeling  was  wrought  by  the  four  years’  reign  of 
James  li.  He,  having  himself  become  a Catholic,  did 
not  wish,  like  his  father  and  brother,  to  pave  the  way 
for  a gradual  union  of  the  two  Churches,  but  thought 
to  subjugate  all  England  to  the  Pope  by  treachery  and 
violence,  and  to  introduce  the  Jesuit  type  of  Catholi- 
cism as  the  national  rehgion — a scheme  betraying  a quite 
abnormal  measure  of  blindness.  For  the  English 
Catholics  no  longer  formed  even  a hundredth  part  of  the 
population,  and  no  feehng  was  stronger  among  the  over- 
whelming majority  of  the  nation  than  hatred  against 
the  Pope  and  the  papal  Church.  His  policy  led  to  the 
Eevolution  of  1688.  James  was  dethroned,  and  died  a 
fugitive  in  France;  his  descendants  remained  pretenders, 
and  a German  royal  family,  the  house  of  Brunswick, 
mounted  the  Enghsh  throne.  But  the  result  of  this 


1 24  Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

danger  and  excitement,  and  of  lively  theological  contro- 
versy with  Catholic  divines,  was  to  give  the  Church  a 
strong  impetus  in  the  Protestant  direction.  At  the  be- 
ginning of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  only  represen- 
tatives left  of  the  earlier  Catholicizing  school  were  the 
Nonjurors,  who  had  been  thrust  out  of  their  dignities 
and  benefices  for  refusing  to  acknowledge  the  new 
dynasty,  and  became  extinct  about  the  middle  of  the 
century. 

Under  the  pressure  of  a still  severer  penal  code, 
and  the  dispiriting  consciousness  of  being  objects  of 
universal  suspicion,  the  English  Catholics  constantly 
diminished  in  number,  and  by  1780  they  had  shrunk 
to  about  66,000  in  all.  But  towards  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth,  and  increasingly  since  the  beginning  of  the 
present  century,  follov/ed  the  great  immigration  of 
Irish  Catholics,  purchased  by  an  oath  in  which  at  length 
the  deposing  power  of  the  Pope  was  openly  and  ex- 
pressly abjured,  and  in  the  very  words  of  the  formula 
of  James  l.  It  was  taken  by  all  the  Bishops  and  Vicars- 
Apostolic,  and  Eome  held  her  tongue.  And  if  in  our 
day  the  English  Catholics  number  about  a million,  or  a 
twentieth  part  of  the  nation,  nine -tenths  of  them  are  of 
Irish  descent.  The  first  mitigation  of  the  penal  laws 


The  English  Reformation.  125 

took  place  in  1778,  but  so  bitter  was  stUl  the  popular 
hatred,  that  in  1780  there  was  a great  outbreak  in 
London,  roused  by  the  well-known  “ ISTo-Popery  ” cry, 
(the  Lord  George  Gordon  riots),  when  Catholic  chapels 
were  destroyed,  and  the  re-enactment  of  the  penal  laws 
was  demanded  of  Parliament,  though  without  success. 

As  a condition  of  complete  emancipation  Pitt 
required  and  obtained  (in  1760)  from  the  Theological 
Faculties  of  the  Sorbonne,  Louvain,  Douay,  Valladolid, 
Salamanca,  and  Alcala,  a declaration  that  the  Pope  has 
no  civil  authority  in  England,  that  he  cannot  absolve 
from  the  Oath  of  Allegiance,  and  that  faith  must  be 
kept  with  heretics.^  And  when  at  last,  in  1824,  the 
time  of  full  emancipation  was  approaching,  and  the 
recollection  of  Papal  Bulls,  insurrections,  and  con- 
spiracies of  former  times  was  found  to  be  still  the 
grand  impediment  to  the  bestowal  of  civO.  equality  on 
Catholics,  the  English  and  Irish  bishops  issued  solemn 
declarations  to  the  effect  that  the  Popes  have  not  the 
slightest  civil  authority  or  any  right  to  enforce  religious 
duties  by  temporal  means,  such  as  corporal  punish- 
ment and  the  like.  This  too  Eome  tolerated,  for 

^ [The  document  is  given  at  length  in  the  Second  Appendix  to  Sir  John 
Cox  Hippesley’s  Speech  nn  a Petition  of  the  Irish  Roman  Catholics,  May 
18,  1810,  2d  ed.,  London,  1810.  Cf.  Edinburgh  Review,  vol.  xvii.  13  sqq.'\ 


126 


Retmion  of  the  Churches. 


emancipation  depended  on  it.  And  as  it  involved 
the  rejection  of  the  theory  of  Papal  infallibility,  it  was 
stated  in  the  English  Catechisms  that  this  pretended 
Catholic  doctrine  was  a Protestant  invention.^  But 
the  English  and  Irish  bishops  of  this  day  do  not  hold 
themselves  hound  by  the  words  of  their  predecessors, 

1 [In  Keenan’s  Controversial  Catechism,  published  by  “the  Catholic 
Publishing  Company,  New  Bond  Street,”  and  largely  circulated,  especially 
in  Ireland,  the  following  Question  and  Answer  occur,  or  did  occur  till 
a twelvemonth  ago,  at  p.  112;  “ Q.  Must  not  Catholics  believe  the  Pope 
in  himself  to  be  infallible?  A.  This  is  a Protestant  invention-,  it  is  no 
article  of  the  Catholic  faith  ; no  decision  of  his  can  oblige  under  pain  of 
heresy,  unless  it  be  received  and  enforced  by  the  teaching  body,  that  is,  by 
the  Bishops  of  the  Church.”  As  late  as  August  1871  the  Catechism  was  on 
sale  in  its  original  form  in  Dublin,  but  since  then  the  leaf  containing  this 
passage  has  been  cancelled  and  another  substituted,  in  which  this  Question 
and  Answer  are  omitted,  and  the  book  can  only  be  obtained  now  in  its 
expurgated  form.  As  regards  the  testimony  of  the  English  and  Irish 
Catholic  bishops  referred  to  in  the  text,  the  following  important  passage 
occurs  in  Bishop  Clifl'ord’s  objections  to  the  infallibility  decree,  printed  at 
Rome  by  authority  during  the  Council  in  the  Synopsis  Analytica  Observa- 
tionum  (see  Friedrich’s  Documenta  Cone.  Vat.,  vol.  ii.  p.  259) ; — “Another 
great  mischief  is  that  before  Catholics  were  liberated  from  the  penal  laws, 
and  admitted  to  full  liberty  and  civil  equality  with  their  fellow-citizens, 
bishops  and  theologians  were  publicly  asked  by  Parliament  whether  the 
Catholics  of  England  believed  that  the  Pope  could,  without  the  express  or 
implied  assent  of  the  Church,  impose  definitions  in  relation  to  faith  or 
morals  upon  the  people.  All  the  bi.shops,  among  whom  were  two  prede- 
cessors of  his  Eminence  the  Cardinal  Archbishop  of  Dublin,  and  the 
theologians,  answered  that  Catholics  did  not  so  believe.  This  appears  in 
the  printed  papers  of  Parliament.  In  reliance  on  these  answers  the  English 
Parliament  admitted  Catholics  to  participation  in  civil  rights.  Who  will 
be  able  to  persuade  Protestants  that  Catholics  have  not  violated  honour 
and  good  faith,  inasmuch  as  when  the  acquisition  of  civil  rights  was  in  ques- 
tion they  publicly  declared  that  the  doctrine  of  Papal  infallibility  was  no 
part  of  the  Catholic  faith,  but  as  soon  as  they  have  gained  what  they 
wanted  abandon  their  public  profession  of  faith  and  assert  the  contrary  ? ”] 


The  English  Reformatio7i. 


127 


and  regard  the  doctrine  of  the  episcopate  of  1826  as 
a doctrine  condemned  by  the  present  Church. 

In  outward  form  the  position  of  the  Episcopal 
Church  in  the  present  day  is  the  same  as  in  the  last 
century.  The  Thirty-nine  Articles  and  the  Liturgy, 
which  do  not  harmonize  strictly  with  each  other,  still 
form  the  obligatory  standard  for  its  members ; it  still 
retains  undisputed  possession  of  its  rich  endowments, 
and  the  majority  of  the  nation  still  belong  to  it, — 
an  overwhelming  proportion  of  the  upper  classes  and 
rural  population,  but  not  so  many  of  the  middle  class 
in  towns.  But  the  Dissenting  communities,  weakened 
by  the  disappearance  of  the  Presbyterians,^  but  rein- 
forced during  the  last  hundred  years  by  the  numerous 
sect  of  Wesley ans  or  Methodists,  are  stronger  and 
better  organized  in  their  common  antagonism  to  the 
State  Church  than  at  any  former  period.  It  may  still 
be  said  with  truth  that  no  Church  is  so  national,  so 
deeply  rooted  in  popular  affection,  so  bound  up  with 
the  institutions  and  manners  of  the  country,  or  so 
powerful  in  its  influence  on  national  character.  During 

1 [The  English  Presbyterians  have  not  disappeared  altogether,  though 
their  numbers  are  diminished  through  the  lapse  of  a large  proportion  into 
Socinianism.  It  was  stated  in  the  Eclectic  Reviev;  for  February  1832  that 
out  of  258  Presbyterian  congregations  in  England  232  had  become 
Unitarian. — See  Letters  to  a Dissenter,  Seeley,  p.  106.] 


128  Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

the  last  forty  years  it  has  extended  its  range,  besides 
strengthening  itself  internally  by  the  foundation  of 
numerous  colonial  bishoprics  in  all  quarters  of  the 
worldd  It  possesses  a rich  theological  literature, 
inferior  only  to  the  German  in  extent  and  depth,  and 
an  excellent  translation  of  the  Bible,  a masterpiece  of 
style,  and  more  accurate  than  the  Lutheran ; and  it  has 
made  the  Bible  a people’s  book  all  over  England,  so 
that  one  finds  it  even  in  the  bedrooms  of  hotels. 
I believe  we  may  credit  one  great  superiority  of 
England  over  other  countries  to  the  circumstance  that 
there  the  Holy  Scripture  is  found  in  every  house,  as  is 
the  case  nowhere  else  in  the  world,  and  is,  so  to  speak, 
the  good  genius  of  the  place,  the  protecting  spirit  of  the 
domestic  hearth  and  family.  I mean  that  no  such 
literature  of  sin  and  shame  as  has  poisoned  the  moral 
atmosphere  of  France,  and  is,  alas ! circulated  in  a 
lesser  degree  in  Germany,  has  yet  found  entrance  into 
the  British  Isles.  Another  point  of  superiority  is  the 
observance  of  Sunday,  which  all  Churches  and  parties 
have  at  heart,  though  it  is  not  at  present  free  from 

1 [In  tlie  Calendar  of  the  English  Church  for  1872  I find  fifty  colonial 
dioceses  enumerated,  in  South  and  West  Africa,  North  America,  Australasia, 
China,  India,  the  West  Indies,  Sandwich  Islands,  and  Islands  of  the  Western 
Pacific.] 


The  English  Reformation.  129 

Judaizing  exaggerations.  But  what  I should  estimate 
most  highly  is  the  fact  that  the  cold,  dull  in- 
differentism,  which  on  the  Continent  has  spread  like  a 
deadly  mildew  over  all  degrees  of  society,  has  no  place 
in  the  British  Isles.  To  whatever  extent  scepticism 
may  have  advanced  among  the  younger  generation,  on 
the  whole  the  Englishman  takes  an  active  part  in  Church 
interests  and  questions,  and  that  unnatural  division 
and  hostility  between  laity  and  clergy  produced  by 
ultramontanism  in  Catholic  countries  is  quite  unknown 
there ; so  much  so,  that  the  influence  of  the  prevalent 
manners  has  extended  to  English  Catholics,  and  the 
relations  of  the  laity  to  the  priesthood  among  them 
are  more  intimate  and  confidential  than  anywhere 
else.  What  has  been  accomplished  during  the  last 
thirty  years  by  the  energy  and  generosity  of  religious 
Englishmen,  set  in  motion  and  guided  by  the  Church, 
in  the  way  of  popular  education  and  church  building, 
far  exceeds  what  has  been  done  in  any  other  country.^ 
Attendance  at  religious  worship  on  Sunday  is  not,  as  in 
France,  the  exception  but  the  rule  with  the  higher  and 
middle  classes.  The  Church  Congress  at  hTottingham  in 

1 [The  Calendar  of  the  English  Church  for  1872  (Rivingtons)  gives  a list 
of  ninety-six  churches  and  chapels  re-opened  after  restoration  or  recon- 
struction, and  seventy-eight  new  ones  built,  during  1871  only.] 


I 


130  Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

October  last  (1871),  in  which  sixteen  bishops  and  some 
three  thousand  clergymen  and  laymen  of  the  most 
various  ranks  and  classes  took  part,  presented  an 
enviable  spectacle  to  other  nations.  The  weightiest 
religious  questions  of  the  day,  and  the  special  events 
and  difficulties  of  the  Anglican  Church,  were  discussed 
with  a dignity  and  thoroughness  which  suggests  to 
every  German  the  tacit  inquiry  whether  anything  of 
the  kind  would  be  possible  with  us. 

But  there  is  no  doubt  a dark  side  to  the  picture, 
and  three  points  whl  at  once  strike  the  eye  of  every 
observer.  In  the  first  place  may  be  mentioned  what 
is  in  England  called  Erastianism, — the  heavy  yoke 
of  State  supervision  under  which  the  English  Church 
groans,  a yoke  it  has  indeed  imposed  on  its  own 
neck  and  daily  confirms  by  the  subscription  of  the 
Thirty-nine  Articles.  For  this  alone  of  all  Churches 
in  its  confession  of  faith  declares  it  to  be  a divinely 
revealed  doctrine,  that  Councils  cainiot  be  held  without 
the  permission  of  secidar  princes,  which  implies  the 
right  of  the  State  not  to  allow  any  authoritative 
declaration  of  doctrine  without  its  own  control  and 
consent.^  The  King  or  Queen,  now  represented  by 

1 [This  is  hardly  accurate.  The  Thirty-nine  Articles  do  not  profess,  like 


The  English  Reformation. 


131 

the  Privy  Council,  chiefly  composed  of  laymen,  is  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Appeal  for  all  dogmatic  or  ritual 
questions.  Its  decisions  in  the  two  famous  cases  of 
Gorham  and  Denison  ^ some  years  ago  drove  numbers 
of  clerg}"men  out  of  the  Church,  which  seemed  to  them 
desecrated  by  this  bondage. 

A second  great  evil  is  the  religious  neglect  of  the 
masses  congregated  in  the  great  towns.  The  Chru’ch, 
•with  her  existing  machinery,  cramped  by  the  family 
ties  of  the  clergy  and  the  want  of  religious  corporations, 
feels  herself  powerless  in  the  presence  of  this  constantly 
increasing  heathenism  ; and  all  the  isolated  attempts  to 
meet  the  crisis  have  hitherto  proved  imavaiLing. 

But  the  greatest  difiicidty  and  most  painful  disease 
of  the  English  Church  is  the  internal  rivalry  and 
antagonism  of  parties  and  systems,  and  the  harassing 

the  Creeds,  or  dogmatic  Canons  of  Councils,  to  deal  only  -with  revealed 
doctrine,  but  to  be  a formula  drawn  up  “ for  the  avoiding  of  diversities  of 
opinion  ” in  the  public  teaching  of  the  clergy,  who  are  alone  required  to 
subscribe  them.  Moreover,  the  21st  Article  is  susceptible  of  a different 
interpretation  from  that  given  in  the  text.  See  Tract  90  (new  ed., 
Rivingtons,  1865),  p.  21,  and  cf.  Bishop  Forbes’s  Exjplanation  of  the 
Articles  (J.  Parker,  1867),  pp.  293  sqq.'\ 

1 [This  is  a mistake.  The  Denison  prosecution  was  quashed  on  technical 
grounds  at  an  earlier  stage,  and  never  came  before  the  Privy  Coimcil  at 
all  on  its  merits.  The  question  then  raised,  whether  the  doctrine  of 
Transubstantiation  or  the  “Real  Objective  Presence,”  with  its  consequent 
doctrines  of  sacrifice  and  worship,  can  be  lawfully  taught  in  the  Church  of 
England,  was  ruled  affirmatively  by  the  Judicial  Committee  in  the  recent 
Bennett  case.] 


132  Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

uncertianty  for  clergy  and  laity  wliicli  is  its  inevitable 
result.  The  divergence  of  views  between  different 
parties  in  tbis  Cburcb  is  greater  than  any  wbicb 
separates  it  from  the  Greek  and  Latin  Cburcbes,  if  the 
three  are  judged  by  their  formal  standards.  Three 
great  parties  or  schools  are  contending  for  mastery  in 
the  Enghsh  Church, — the  Evangehcal  or  Low  Church, 
the  Broad  Church,  and  the  High  Church  or  Anglo- 
Catholic.  The  first  claims  to  inlierit  the  Calvinist 
system,  formerly  naturalized  in  England,  and  to  repre- 
sent the  principles  and  doctrines  of  the  pure  Protestant- 
ism of  the  sixteenth  century.  These  Evangelicals  are 
wholly  destitute  of  theological  culture,  and  possess  and 
produce  only  a popular,  not  a scientific  literature.  The 
old  Calvinistic  doctrine  of  justification  is  to  them  the 
Alpha  and  Omega  of  Christianity.  In  this  party  is 
especially  concentrated  the  old  traditional  hatred  of 
the  Papacy,  and  the  anti-papal  interpretation  of  the 
Apocalypse  is  indispensable  for  tickling  the  ears  of  their 
hearers.  They  still  exist  on  the  credit  of  their  greater 
and  more  active  predecessors,  and  by  help  of  the  institu- 
tions they  founded ; but  they  are  not  an  advancing  party, 
but  the  reverse.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Broad  Church, 
as  being  the  youngest  school,  are  still  m progress. 


The  English  Ref  or ination.  133 

Created  and  sustained  by  the  study  of  German  pbilo- 
sopbical  and  theological  literature,  they  form  an  union 
of  sympathizing  scholars  rather  than  a Church  party, 
but  exercise  no  inconsiderable  influence  on  the  views 
of  educated  lay  society.  As  eclectics,  they  recognise  in 
every  large  ecclesiastical  body  a mixture  of  truth  and 
falsehood,  good  and  evil,  but  consider  the  English 
Church  the  best  relatively,  on  account  of  its  combina- 
tion of  Catholic  and  Protestant  doctrines,  and  the  great 
diversity  of  opinion  cherished  within  its  pale.  They 
attach  little  importance  to  the  form  of  Church- govern- 
ment, but  all  the  more  to  the  maintenance  of  the  union 
of  Church  and  State. 

The  third,  and  from  our  point  of  view  most  important 
party,  is  that  termed  by  its  opponents  the  High  Church 
or  Eitualistic,  and  which  calls  itself  the  Anglo-Catholic. 
Its  headquarters  are  at  the  University  of  Oxford,  from 
wliich  it  derives  its  name.  It  repudiates  the  title  of 
Protestant.  It  has  been  in  process  of  development  for 
forty  years,  and  claims  descent  from  the  school  of  theo- 
logians of  the  seventeenth  century,  mentioned  before, 
reaching  from  Andrewes  to  Bingham.  It  regards  the 
Church  as  the  divinely  ordained  organ  and  keeper  of 
doctrine  and  the  means  of  grace,  and  as  standing  or 


134  Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

falling  by  the  apostolical  succession.  And  as  this 
can  only  be  found  in  the  three  great  Churches 
■whose  continuity  has  never  been  interrupted, — the 
Western,  Eastern,  and  English, — these  three  together 
make  up  the  true  universal  Church ; their  substantial 
agreement  in  matters  essential  to  salvation  not  being 
prejudiced  by  various  excrescences,  abuses,  and  errors 
■which  may  be  found  in  them.  The  body  of  the  Church, 
one  in  origin,  has  in  course  of  time,  through  the  sin  of 
man  and  by  Divine  permission,  become  dmded  into 
three  great  branches — outwardly  separated,  but  in- 
wardly united, — which,  when  the  right  time  is  come, 
will  grow  together  again  into  one  tree,  overshadowing 
the  world  with  its  foliage. 

The  Oxford  or  Anglo-Catholic  school  does  not  consider 
itself  to  be  at  issue  with  the  doctrinal  standards  of  the 
English  Church.  It  maintains  that  by  God’s  grace  the 
Thirty-nine  Articles,  apart  from  the  opinions  of  their 
authors,  were  so  composed  as  to  admit  of  an  interpreta- 
tion in  the  sense  of  the  ancient  undivided  Church,  and 
are  therefore  capable  of  being  subscribed  by  men  hold- 
ing their  views.  And  in  fact  three  explanations  of  the 
Articles  in  a Catholic  sense  have  already  appeared, — one 
in  the  seventeenth  century  by  the  Catholic  theologian. 


The  English  Reformation. 


135 


Davenport  (Sancta  Clara)  another  in  1841  by  John 
Henry  Newnnan,  who  has  since  become  a Catholic ; and 
the  last  in  1867,  by  Forbes,  Bishop  of  Brechin. 

It  is  chiefly  from  this  section  of  the  English  Church 
that  proposals  and  considerations  on  the  subject  of 
reunion  emanate.  Their  most  influential  theologian, 
Pusey,  has  undertaken  to  show,  in  his  last  great  work, 
the  Eirenicon,  how  comparatively  easy  an  union  would 
be,  inasmuch  as  the  doctrines  in  which  both  Churches 
agree  are  so  many.  But  that  was  all  written  before 
the  notorious  decrees  of  the  Vatican  Cormcil,  the  bare 
possibility  of  which  nobody  then  believed  in.  The 
bridge  for  corporate  union  has  now  been  broken  down. 

1 l^Paraphraatica  Expositio  Articulorum  Confessionis  Anglicawje,  edited, 
with  Introduction  and  Translation,  by  Rev.  F.  G.  Lee.  Hayes,  1865. 
Christopher  Davenport  was  bom  at  Coventry  about  1598,  and  matriculated 
at  Merton  College,  0.xford,  in  1613.  He  soon  afterwards  became  a Roman 
Catholic,  and  went  first  to  Douay,  and  then  to  Ypres,  where  he  entered 
the  Franciscan  Order,  taking  the  name  of  Franciscus  a S.  Clara,  in  1617. 
In  1639,  on  the  re-establishment  of  the  English  Franciscan  province,  he 
returned  to  his  native  country,  and  was  appointed  chaplain  to  the  Queen, 
Henrietta  Maria.  He  was  the  author  of  several  theological  works,  and  after 
three  times  holding  the  office  of  Provincial  of  the  Order  in  England,  died  at 
Somerset  House  in  1680.  The  Exposition  of  the  Articles  was  published  in 
1646,  and  dedicated  to  Charles  i.  Of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  Sancta  Clara 
considers  eighteen  Catholic  throughout,  and  two  (11  and  12)  concerned 
with  mere  logomachies,  while  the  rest  require,  but  also  admit  of,  explana- 
tion in  whole  or  in  part,  and  these  last  are  examined  at  length,  viz.. 
Articles  6,  9,  13-15,  19-22,  24,  25,  28-32,  35-37.  The  work  is  supposed  to 
have  formed  the  basis  of  the  famous  Tract  90,  to  which  Cardinal  Wiseman 
refers  in  his  Letter  to  Lovd  Shrewsbury,  as  containing  “ the  demonstration 
that  such  interpretation  may  be  given  to  the  most  difficult  Articles  as  will 
strip  them  of  all  contradiction  to  the  decrees  of  the  Tridentine  Synod.”] 


LECTUEE  VIE 


DIFFICULTIES  AND  GEOUNDS  OF  HOPE. 

OU  speak  of  a possible  reunion  of  separated 


Cliurcbes,  while  you  are  yourseK  obliged  to 


admit  that  the  largest  of  them,  which  is  your  own,  has 
made  union  with  her  impossible  by  the  decrees  of  July 
18,  1870.”  This  is  the  objection  before  us,  on  which  I 
proceed  to  remark  as  follows. 

Certainly  no  other  Church  will  think  of  uniting  with 
a body  which  assumes  the  right,  never  before  clahned 
or  heard  of  throughout  the  Christian  world,  of  making 
new  dogmas,  and  places  this  right  at  the  absolute  dis- 
posal of  a single  individual.  And  for  this  reason,  that  in 
deahng  with  a Church  so  despotically  constituted  there 
cannot  be  any  union,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  but 
only  unconditional  submission  and  renunciation  of  all 
knowledge  and  judgment  of  one’s  own.  The  notion  of 
binding  one’s-self  to  accept  articles  of  faith  to  be  here- 


136 


Difficulties  and  Gi'-ounds  of  Hope.  1 3 7 

after  fabricated  and  as  yet  unknown,  contradicts  tlie 
fundamental  principles  of  Cbristianityd 

"Wlien  a great  change  is  to  be  carried  through, 
a new  doctrine  introduced,  and  a great  institution 
revolutionized,  the  first  question  to  be  asked  is,  which 
side  the  younger  generation  will  take  ? for  to  them 
belongs  the  future.  We  ask,  therefore,  whether  our 
boys  and  youths  will  really  become  inoculated  with 
the  new  doctrines,  and  make  them,  as  directed,  the  basis 
of  their  faith,  with  which  the  whole  edifice  of  Chris- 
tianity stands  or  falls  ? Will  they  say,  “ My  infallible 
master,  my  true  lord  and  governor,  to  whom  I am  sub- 
ject, body  and  soul,  is  that  Italian  priest  who  is  called 
the  Pope  ” ? I think  it  impossible.  It  is  inconceivable, 
because  our  whole  education  and  training  in  Germany 
is  an  historical  one,  and  every  page  of  history  convicts 
this  system  of  spiritual  absolutism  of  falsehood ; because, 
in  the  present  condition  and  wide  spread  of  historical 
knowledge  in  Gennany,  our  youth  will  inevitably  dis- 
cover that  the  new  dogma  of  papal  omnipotence  is  a 

1 [Accordingly,  Archbishop  Murray,  of  Dublin,  when  examined  before  a 
Parliamentary  Committee  in  1825  on  the  nature  and  extent  of  Papal  pre- 
rogatives, and  asked  whether  there  had  been  any  change  in  Catholic  belief 
on  tlie  subject,  replied,  “ With  respect  to  Jaith  there  can  he  no  change  j the 
faith  of  the  Catholic  Chui’ch  we  consider  to  be  invariable.”— 

Papers,  1825,  vol.  viii.  p.  239  ] 


138  Reunioit  of  the  Churches. 

product  of  fraud  and  forgery,  and  a source  of  ruin  for 
Churches  as  well  as  States.  It  is  no  longer  possible  to 
shut  out  our  youth  from  knowledge,  to  keep  them  in 
ignorance  of  history.  In  that  as  in  many  other  matters 
they  are  deceived  at  Eome.  The  Italian,  Spanish, 
South  American,  and  French  bishops,  who  conformed 
to  the  Pope’s  will  on  July  18,  possessed  indeed  not  the 
slightest  particle  of  historical  culture ; but  what  was 
and  is  practicable  in  those  countries,  in  the  lamentable 
condition  of  their  schools,  is  not  possible  in  Germany. 
That  circumstance  alone  must  upset  the  calculations 
of  the  Vatican  party,  as  far  as  Germany  is  concerned, 
for  even  the  women  and  country  folk,  who  are  still 
reckoned  upon,  will  be  gradually  and  irresistibly  drawn 
into  the  stream  of  knowledge  emanating  from  the  edu- 
cated classes,  and  carried  along  with  it.  Our  young 
students  will  either  put  aside  the  articles  of  faith  made 
yesterday,  in  the  true  conviction  that  they  will  be  as 
foreign  to  the  future  as  they  are  to  the  past  belief  of 
the  Church,  and  will  adhere  to  the  ancient  doctrine, 
or — God  grant  it  be  not  the  commoner  result ! — on 
account  of  these  untenable  articles  will  reject  the  whole 
faith  and  abandon  aU  religion. 

I may  be  further  asked  how  I can  venture  to  cherish 
and  kindle  in  others  hopes  of  reconciliation,  when  the 


Difficulties  and  Grounds  of  Hope.  139 

old,  well  proved  and  implacable  enemies  of  ecclesiastical 
vmion — tbe  men  to  whom  any  union,  wbicb  is  not  an 
unconditional  surrender,  is  an  abomination — tbe  Jesuits, 
are  at  present  more  numerous  and  influential  in  Ger- 
many than  in  any  other  country.  Have  they  not 
their  strong  fortresses  and  intrenched  camps  in  the  very 
heart  of  our  Empire  ? Are  they  not  already  dominant 
in  Westphalia  and  the  Ehineland  ? Do  they  not  keep 
our  bishops  in  complete  dependence  on  them,  and  have 
not  these  last  just  held  up  the  Jesuits  to  popular 
encouragement  and  veneration,  as  models  of  Christian 
wisdom  and  virtue  ? Is  it  not  they  who  pre-arranged 
the  Vatican  decrees,  and  thus,  so  to  say,  lent  a hand  to 
the  Pope  and  the  ultramontane  bishops  ? 

To  this  I reply  as  follows.  I do  not  only  believe 
but  know  that  the  reign  of  this  Order  in  Germany 
will  not  be  of  long  duration,  that  their  brilliant  victory 
— I mean  especially  the  battles  won  on  July  18  and 
August  31,  1870,^  the  Vatican  decrees  and  surrender  of 
the  German  bishops — will  at  no  distant  future  be 
converted  into  a defeat.  The  clear  testimony  of  history 
leaves  no  doubt  about  it. 

^ [The  date  of  the  second  Fulda  Pastoral,  accepting  the  Vatican  decrees. 
— Cf.  Reinkens’  Unterwerfung  der  deutschen  Biscliofe  zu  Fulda,  Munster, 
1871.  It  ■will  be  remembered  that  this  Lecture  ■was  delivered  in  March 
last.] 


140  Retinion  of  the  CJmrches. 

The  experience  of  three  centuries  shows  that  the 
Jesuits  have  no  lucky  hand.  ISTo  blessing  ever  rests  on 
their  undertakings.  They  build  with  unwearied  assi- 
duity, but  a storm  comes  and  shatters  the  building,  or  a 
flood  breaks  in  and  washes  it  away,  or  the  worm-eaten 
edifice  falls  to  pieces  in  their  hands.  The  Oriental 
proverb  about  the  Turks  may  be  applied  to  them  : 
“ Where  the  Turk  sets  his  foot,  grass  never  gvows.” 
Their  missions  in  Paraguay,  Japan,  and  among  the  wild 
North  American  tribes  have  long  since  gone  to  ruin. 
In  Abyssinia  they  had  once  (in  1625)  almost  attained 
dominion,  but  soon  afterwards  (in  1634)  the  whole 
concern  collapsed,  and  they  never  ventured  to  return 
there.  What  is  left  to-day  of  their  laborious  missions 
in  the  Levant,  the  Greek  islands,  Persia,  the  Crimea, 
and  Egypt  ? Scarcely  a reminiscence  of  their  former 
presence  there  is  to  be  found  on  the  spot. 

Above  aU,  has  the  Society  of  Jesus  devoted  its  best 
services  to  its  native  home  of  Spain.  Themselves 
children  of  the  Spanish  race  and  inheritors  of  the 
Spanish  character,  for  sixty  years  they  displayed  their 
Spanish  feeling  throughout  Europe ; they  laboured  for 
the  spread  and  consolidation  of  the  universal  monarchy 
of  Spain.  The  result  was  the  bankruptcy  and  depopu- 


Diffimlties  and  Grounds  of  Hope.  1 4 1 

lation  of  that  once  powerful  kingdom,  and  its  loss  of  one 
possession  after  another,  so  that  hy  the  end  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  to  cite  the  language  of  a Spanish 
writer,  it  had  become  an  inanimate  corpse,  the  skeleton 
of  a giant.  In  Spain  itself  they  co-operated  vdth  the 
Inquisition  for  two  hundred  years  in  impressing  their 
spirit  on  the  life  of  the  people,  wdth  this  result,  that  the 
higher  education  has  been  crushed,  the  scientific  spirit 
strangled,  and  the  country,  ruined  in  every  department 
of  life,  is  still  behind  every  other  country  in  Europe 
except  Turkey,  and,  having  no  healthy  literature  of  its 
own,  has  to  feed  on  the  foreign  literature  of  France. 
Well  might  a Spanish  diplomatist  in  Eome  say,  at  the 
time  of  the  suppression  of  the  Order,  “The  Jesuits  are 
the  wood- worm  that  gnaws  on  our  bowels.”  ^ 

They  it  was  who  brought  on  the  German  nation  the 
Thirty  Years’  War  and  its  results,  and  to  them  Catholic 
Germany  owes  the  decline  of  its  schools  and  its  conse- 
quent backwardness  in  cultivation  and  long  intellectual 
sterility.  It  was  they  who  completely  undermined  the 
ancient  German  and  Catholic  Empire,  and  paved  the 
way  for  its  fall.  They,  as  the  all-powerful  conscience- 

^ “ Quanto  bien  nos  ba  di  venir  de  la  expulsion  de  la  carcoma  que  nos 
roea  las  entranas.” — Esjpiritib  di  Azara,  p.  26. 


142  Reimion  of  the  Churches. 

keepers  of  the  Hapsburgs,  Ferdinand  i.,  Ferdinand  ii., 
and  Leopold  i.,  have  on  their  conscience  the  destruction 
of  the  liberties  of  the  States  of  the  Empire,  the  thorough 
enforcement  of  absolutism,  the  oppression  and  expulsion 
of  the  Protestants ; in  a word,  that  whole  crop  of  in- 
extinguishable hatred  which  the  house  of  Hapsburg  has 
sown  throughout  Protestant  Germany.  By  their  in- 
fluence that  intellectual  quarantine  was  established,  by 
which  the  Austrian  states  have  been  entirely  cut  off 
from  the  rest  of  Germany,  German  culture  kept  at 
arm’s  length,  and  that  exclusion  of  Austria  brought 
about  which  we  have  lived  to  witness. 

Bohemia  has  long  been  given  over  to  the  care  and 
charge  of  the  Jesuits,  and  what  have  they  made  of  it? 
They  have  utterly  destroyed  the  old  Czech  literature, 
and  have  brought  matters  to  such  a pass  that  nearly  the 
whole  Bohemian  nobility  is  annihilated  through  execu- 
tions, confiscations,  and  banishment,  three  thousand 
families  driven  out  of  the  country,  and  the  Bohemian 
constitution  broken  up.  And  now  the  harvest  of  the 
dragon’s  teeth  sown  by  the  Order  of  Loyola  is  springing 
up,  and  if  the  contest  of  the  two  nationalities  there 
admits  of  no  peace  or  reconciliation,  the  acts  of  the 
seventeenth  century  and  their  authors  must  bear  the 


Difficulties  and  Grounds  of  Hope.  143 

blame.  The  working  of  the  Order  in  the  ecclesiastical 
principahties  may  he  exemphfied  from  the  condition  of 
the  electoral  state  of  Cologne,  as  recently  described  by 
Perthes.  There  for  nearly  two  centuries  everything  was 
subject  to  their  influence  and  direction,  as  confessors 
of  the  Electors. 

In  England  the  destiny  of  the  Catholics  was  for  a 
century  moulded  by  the  influence  of  the  Jesuits  at 
Pome  and  the  intense  hatred  which  they  excited  at 
home,  and  we  have  seen  what  a monstrous  weight  of 
misfortune  and  oppression  they  rolled  down  on  the 
shoulders  of  their  hapless  co-religionists. 

They  tried  to  reintroduce  Catholicism  into  Sweden 
by  means  of  a liturgy  forcibly  imposed  on  the  clergy, 
and  with  the  help  of  King  Sigismund,  who  was  \mder 
their  guidance ; Sigismund  in  consequence  lost  his 
crown,  and  they  were  banished  for  ever  from  the 
country.^ 

In  Eussia  they  undertook,  by  means  of  their  instru- 
ment, the  false  Demetrius,  to  estabhsh  Polish  influence, 
and  bring  the  Empire  and  nation  into  subjection  to  the 
See  of  Rome,  but  their  proselyte  and  proUge  was 
killed,  and  they  had  to  quit  the  country.  In  Poland 

1 Gejer’s  GeschicJite  Schwedens. 


144  Reunion  of  the  CJmrches. 

they  dominated  the  kings,  the  higher  clergy,  and  the 
nobility  for  a long  time  ; and  Poland  is  destroyed. 

In  Portugal  they  had  King  Sebastian  entirely  in 
their  hands,  and  he  lost  his  army  and  his  life  in  Africa, 
in  a foolish  campaign  suggested  by  religious  enthusiasm, 
and  plunged  his  country  into  an  abyss  of  misery  and 
ruin,  from  -which  it  has  never  been  able  to  rise  to  its 
former  prosperity.  Then  they  did  their  best  to  promote 
the  Spanish  dominion  over  Portugal,  and  that  also  soon 
collapsed.  And  when  they  again  became  powerful 
through  having  the  Sovereigns  under  their  spiritual 
direction,  the  country  sank  into  a decline,  from  w^hich  it 
is  still  suffering,  through  their  intolerable  misgovern- 
ment. 

In  France  the  Jesuits  were  the  conscience-keepers  of 
the  Bourbons,  and  their  spiritual  children,  Louis  xiv. 
and  Louis  xv.,  paved  the  way  for  the  Eevolution  and 
the  destruction  of  the  dynasty,  or  rather,  one  may  say, 
made  it  inevitable.  For  the  deep  decay  of  the  country, 
the  neglect  of  the  greater  part  of  the  nation,  and  the 
profligacy  spreading  from  the  Court,  impressed  on  the 
first  acts  of  the  Eevolution  the  destructive  character 
which  has  to  this  day  hindered  the  recovery  of  France. 
And  here  too  we  must  say  of  the  French  Church,  that 


DifficMlties  and  Grounds  of  Hope,  145 


it  was  the  Jesuits  who,  during  the  time  they  ruled  it 
hy  means  of  the  royal  patronage,  so  devastated  and 
demoralized  it,  that  even  in  the  eighteenth  century  it 
was  powerless  to  cope  with  Voltairianism,  and  was 
already  falling  to  pieces  before  it  was  finally  over- 
thrown by  the  Eevolution. 

I readily  leave  to  this  Order  the  fate  of  the  Vatican 
decrees,  the  more  readily  as  it  has  the  duties  of  pater- 
nity to  discharge  towards  them.  For  the  Jesuits 
excogitated,  sketched  out,  and  finally  shaped  those 
decrees,  though  with  the  assistance  of  certain  Bishops. 

And  now  I turn  to  the  friends  of  our  cause,  those  who 
have  before  me  borne  their  testimony  to  it,  and  those 
on  whose  co-operation  or  sympathy  we  may  reckon. 

There  are  three  works  of  recent  date  occupied  with 
the  question  of  the  union  of  the  Churches,  all  of 
which  have  fed  my  hopes  and  raised  my  courage  ; for 
they  prove  that  alike  in  Germany  and  in  England  the 
number  of  the  friends  of  union  is  by  no  means  small, 
and  is  still  increasing.  The  author  of  Fax  Ydbiscum} 
is  an  influential  clergyman  in  Franconia.  He  paints 
in  glaring  colours  the  great  and  almost  insuperable 

1 Pax  Vohiscum.  Die  kirchliche  Wiedervereinigung  der  Kathnliken  und 
Protestanten  historish-pragmatisch  heleuchtet  von  einem  Protestanten. 
Bamberg,  1863. 

K 


146  Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

difficulties  which  beset  every  step  on  the  road  to 
reunion.  There  does  not  seem  to  him  either  the  capa- 
city or  the  call  to  accomplish  the  blessed  work  at  the 
present  time,  but  the  way  should  be  prepared  for  it, 
and  every  impediment,  as  far  as  possible,  got  rid  of.^ 
Nor  does  he  conceal  that  the  contest  for  dear  life  which 
both  Churches  will  have  to  carry  on,  against  the  giant 
powers  of  unbelief  and  destruction  which  are  rising 
up  against  them,  can  only  be  waged  successfully  with 
their  forces  united. 

The  second  work,  by  the  Berlin  preacher  Schulze, 
goes  so  far  in  the  approval  and  acceptance  of  Catholic 
doctrines  that  one  may  almost  say  that,  if  it  expressed 
the  mind  of  a preponderating  majority  in  the  German 
Protestant  Church,  four-fifths  of  the  difficult  work  of 
reunion  would  be  already  accomplished.^  Nor  does  the 
work  stand  alone,  as  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the 
EvangcliscTie  Kirchenzeitung  of  Berlin  for  1870  has 
communicated  and  indorsed  its  contents. 

The  third  work,  by  Dr.  Pusey,  the  views  of  which 
are  substantially  shared  by  thousands  of  the  clergy 
and  laity  of  the  Anglican  Church,  goes  further  still  than 

1 Pax  Vobiscum,  p.  342. 

2 Ueber  roTtianisirende  Tendenzen,  ein  Wort  zum  Frieden.  Berlin,  1870. 


Difficulties  and  Grounds  of  Hope.  147 

Schulze’s,  for  the  famous  Oxford  theologian  thinks  that 
all  the  doctrinal  decisions  of  Trent  might  be  accepted, 
if  only  certain  decrees  were  authoritatively  explained 
in  the  sense  of  the  more  moderate  Catholic  divines.^ 
Only  the  extension  of  the  papal  primacy  to  an  uu- 
limited  supremacy,  and  the  excesses  in  Marian  worship, 
and  in  the  veneration  of  Saints  and  sacred  pictures, 
are,  in  the  author’s  eyes,  the  great  stumbling-blocks 
that  must  first  be  removed. 

We  constantly  hear  complaints  now  of  a general 
hostility  to  the  Church.  There  is  said  to  be  a wide- 
spread feeling  of  alienation  and  dislike  towards  her, 
Amriously  and  injuriously  manifested  in  the  press  and 
in  society.  That  such  complaints  should  be  made  on 
the  Catholic  side  is  perfectly  intelligible.  The  party 
now  dominant  in  the  Church  is  warlike  and  afTOTessive, 
and  constantly  proclaims  that  it  is  striving  for  two 
great  objects.^  In  the  first  place,  it  is  resolved  to  rule 
and  subjugate  everything,  not  only  in  the  sphere  of 


An  Eirenicon.  By  Rev.  E.  B.  Pusey,  D.D.  Rivingtons,  1865.  OS.  First 
Letter  to  Very  Rev.  J.  H.  Newman,  D.D.,  1869,  and  Is  Healthful  Reunion 
impossible  t a Second  Letter,  etc.,  1870. 

® [Compare  Newman’s  description  of  the  action  of  this  same  "insolent 
and  aggressive  faction,”  in  his  letter  to  Bishop  Ullathome,  published  in 
the  Standard  of  April  7,  1870.  It  is  quoted  in  full  at  pp.  355  sqq.  of 
Letters  of  Quirinus.  Rivingtons,  1870.] 


148  Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

religious  but  of  moral  and  even  political  and  civil  life. 
In  the  next  place,  it  is  resolved  to  undermine,  and, 
when  the  right  moment  arrives,  to  destroy  the  existing 
public  order  of  society  and  modern  legislation,  with  the 
liberty  of  the  press,  of  religion,  of  teaching,  etc. ; for 
with  these  things — appealing  as  it  does  to  the  principles 
of  the  Syllabus  and  the  views  of  the  Popes — it  cannot 
reconcile  itself.  But  with  the  Protestant  Church  it 
is  different.  Its  clergy,  allowing  of  course  for  some 
exceptions,  can  neither  be  charged  with  lust  of  power 
nor  with  hostility  to  the  present  order  of  society.  And 
here  I am  reminded  of  the  strong  saying  uttered  at  a 
Church  meeting  ; “ We  have  no  flocks  at  onr  back ; 
ninety-nine  hundredths  of  our  people  are  in  league 
with  the  enemy.”  ^ How  is  this  phenomenon  to  be 
explained?  And  how  is  one  to  explain  another  cog- 
nate phenomenon,  which  I wiU.  describe  in  the  words 
used  by  a distinguished  Protestant  divine,  Bruckner, 
in  an  address  delivered  at  Leipsic  in  1860:  “Our 
Church,  notwithstanding  all  remaining  differences,  is 
in  many  respects  reverting  to  the  condition  of  the  age 
before  Constantine.  Public  opinion  is  again,  on  the 
whole,  enlisted,  not  on  the  side  of  Christianity,  but 

> Messner’s  Neue  Evang.  Kirchenzeitung,  1866,  p.  6. 


Difficulties  and  Grounds  of  Hope.  149 

against  it,”  etc. ; and  he  anticipates  oppression  and 
sufferings  for  his  Church.’ 

Here  it  is  obvious  that  mere  naked  unbelief  or 
hostility  to  positive  religion  will  not  explain  the 
phenomenon ; the  mischief  lies  deeper.  The  general 
superintendent  and  Court  preacher  at  Berlin,  Hoff- 
mann, has  lately  written  on  the  “ Causes  of  the 
antagonism  to  the  Church  in  Germany.”  ^ He  enumer- 
ates many,  but  above  all  the  uncertainty  and  dis- 
cordance of  the  doctrines  delivered  from  the  prdpit. 
The  impression  left  on  one’s  mind  is,  that  the  evil 
lies  in  the  want  of  confidence  and  respect  of  the  laity 
for  their  preacher,  in  whom  they  see  a man  teaching 
simply  according  to  the  measure  of  his  attainments, 
and  from  his  own  subjective  point  of  view.  They 
have  no  feeling  that  he  is  supported  on  the  broad 
stream  of  Christian  tradition  flowing  down  through 
eighteen  centuries,  and  that  his  message  is  but  the 
echo  of  the  voice  of  the  whole  Church  reaching  up  to 
Christ ; that  they  do  but  hear  from  his  mouth  what 
has  been  always  and  everywhere  proclaimed  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord.  If  then  the  German  Protestant 

* Die  Kirche  nach  ihr.  Urspning,  Qeschichte,  Oegenwart,  Vortrage,  von 
Luthardt,  Kahnis  und  Bruckner.  Leipsic,  1865, 

2 See  his  periodical,  DeiUsMand,  Jahrg.  i.  pp.  224  sqq. 


1 50  Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

Church,  was  enlarged  by  union  with  other  Churches, 
and  re-entered  by  this  union  with  the  ancient  Churches 
into  their  unbroken  continuity  of  Church  life  and 
doctrine,  would  she  not  gain  in  strength  and  authority  ? 
Would  not  her  testimony  be  weightier  and  her  power 
of  popular  attraction  increased  ? 

If  we  look  closer,  we  shall  be  able  to  assume  a dis- 
position and  readiness  for  union  among  all  those  who 
admit  that  the  communion  they  belong  to  is  not  abso- 
lutely the  Church,  the  one  and  single  Church  complete 
in  itself,  but  only  a branch  Church,  which  cannot  claim 
to  be  itseK  that  One  Holy  Catholic  and  Apostolic  Church 
whereof  the  Creed  speaks.  This  is  maintained  by  those 
divines  who  adhere  most  strictly  to  the  Lutheran 
doctrine.^  They,  as  well  as  most  Protestant  theologians 
at  the  present  day,  say  that  there  is  no  communion  of 
which  it  can  be  affirmed  that  the  fulness  of  the  gifts 
of  gTace  and  spiritual  life  dwell  exclusively  within  its 
pale,  while  aR  without  is  apostasy  and  heresy.^  It 
foRows  that  they  must  hold  the  one  CathoRc  Church 
to  be  now  spRt  into  fragments,  each  of  the  great 
Churches  having,  of  course  in  different  degrees,  its 

1 So  Harnack,  Die  Kirche,  ihr  Amt,  ihr  Regiment,  Niirnberg,  1862,  pp. 
87  sqq. 

* Cf.  Stahl,  Die  lutherische  Kirclie  und  die  Union,  p.  450. 


Difficulties  and  Grounds  of  Hope.  151 

peculiar  advantages  and  defects.  But  it  also  follows 
that  no  single  Church  can  claim  Catholicity  to  the  ex- 
clusion of  the  rest.  The  Greek  and  Eussian  Churches 
do  not  do  so.  Mouravieff  observes  that  the  Councils 
held  in  the  East  by  Greek  and  Eussian  Bishops  had 
abstained  from  caUing  themselves  “ CEcumenical/’  be- 
cause the  Greek  Church  cannot  regard  herself  as  the 
universal  Church  apart  from  the  Eoman.^ 

And  here  I wiE  refer  to  a doctrinal  ruEng  of  CathoEc 
theology,  which  is  admitted  even  by  the  most  papally- 
minded  theologians,  and  which  as  I beEeve  may  be  of 
the  greatest  service  for  the  cause  of  union.  It  is 
always  taught  in  the  Church  that  baptism  is  what 
makes  every  one  a member  of  the  true  CathoEc  Church, 
and  as  baptism  can  never  be  obEterated  or  repeated, 
anybody  once  baptized  remains  for  ever  a member  of 
the  One  Church,  even  should  he  pass  over  to  another 
sect  or  Church,  only  that  he  then  loses  the  rights  of 
membership.  In  tlie  reEgious  manual  approved  by 
Church  authority  for  use  in  the  Bavarian  schools,  it  is 

1 Question  Religieuse  d’Orient  et  d’Occident  (Moscow,  1856),  pp.  223. 
[Similarly  the  Popes  who  summoned  the  Councils  of  Lyons  and  Florence 
for  the  reunion  of  the  Greeks,  Gregory  x.  and  Eugenius  iv.,  speak  thi’ough- 
out  in  their  official  documents  of  “the  union  of  the  Western  and  Eastern 
Church,”  of  “ uniting  the  Church  of  God,”  etc.  See,  for  the  detailed 
evidence  of  this,  Ffoulkes’s  Christendom’s  Divisions,  pp.  259-261,  337-340.] 


152  Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

taught  that  those  who  have  been  made  members  of 
Christ  by  the  sacrament  of  baptism,  if  they  remain  out 
of  her  visible  communion  only  through  involuntary 
ignorance  and  error,  are  regarded  by  the  Church  as  her 
true  children  erring  by  no  fault  of  their  own. 

And  here  it  must  be  explained  that  the  notion  of 
involuntary  error  is  a very  wide  one,  for  it  includes  all 
who  cannot  be  charged  with  obstinacy  {pertinacia) 
and  conscious  rejection  of  recognised  truth.  Conse- 
quently the  great  majority  of  Protestants  are  members 
of  the  One  Catholic  Church.  Of  the  eighty  million 
Greeks  and  Eussians  this  is  self-evident.  So  broad  is 
the  notion  of  Catholicity,  and  thus  disappears  what  else 
would  be  offensive  and  odious  in  the  maxim,  “ Out  of 
the  Church  no  salvation.”  Certainly  Pius  vill.  in  his 
Brief  of  March  25,  1830,  addressed  to  the  Ehenish 
Bishops,  has  again  enjoined  on  them  the  teaching  of 
this  doctrine  in  the  harshest  sense,  and  without  the 
addition  of  any  mitigating  or  explanatory  interpretation, 
and  that  with  direct  reference  to  the  Protestants.^  But 
Pius  IX.  has  not  thought  himself  bound  by  this  judg- 
ment, and  declares  in  an  Allocution  of  December  9, 
1854,  not  only,  first,  that  ignorance  is  an  excuse  before 

1 Denziger,  Eincheiridion  Symh.  et  DeJin.,  1854,  p.  423. 


Dijficulties  and  Grounds  of  Hope.  153 

God,  but,  secondly,  that  “no  one  can  undertake  to  fix 
the  limits  of  this  ignorance,  when  regard  is  had  to  the 
diversity  of  peoples,  countries,  and  minds,  and  the  influ- 
ence of  many  other  circumstances.”  The  Pope  therefore 
teaches,  or  must  by  logical  inference  teach  and  inculcate, 
“ Judge  not  that  ye  be  not  judged ; condemn  no  one  who 
is  in  error  according  to  your  opinion,  for  you  cannot  tell 
whether  his  error  is  inculpable  or  not.”  That  the  pre- 
valent practice  in  the  Eoman  Catholic  Church  and  the 
conduct  of  many  of  her  priests  is  in  glaring  contradic- 
tion to  these  theories,  is  perfectly  true.  If  Popes  and 
Bishops  wished  to  be  consistent,  they  would  be  obliged 
to  acknowledge  that  the  Church  is  obscured  and  her 
visible  evidence  and  attractive  power  lessened  by  the 
gross  abuses  prevalent,  the  amount  of  superstitions 
favoured  and  practised,  and  the  spectacle  of  so  many 
scandals  among  the  clergy,  and  that  this  excuses  before 
God  the  judgment  of  those  who  refuse  the  invitation  to 
enter  her  communion.  But  this  doctrine  of  the  Church 
being  partly  visible  and  partly  invisible  does  us  excellent 
service,  first,  in  disposing  of  the  old  controversy  between 
Catholic  and  Protestant  theologians  about  the  visibility 
or  invisibility  of  the  Church  ; and  secondly,  because  it 
enables  us  to  say  to  all  members  of  other  communions. 


154  Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

“ As  being  baptized,  we  are  all  on  either  side  brothers 
and  sisters  in  Christ,  we  are  all  at  bottom  members  of 
the  universal  Church.  In  this  great  garden  of  God  let 
us  shake  hands  with  one  another  over  the  confessional 
hedges,  and  let  us  break  them  down  so  as  to  be  able  to 
embrace  one  another  altogether.  Tliese  hedges  are  the 
doctrinal  divisions,  about  wdiich  either  we  or  you  are 
in  error ; if  you  are  wrong,  we  do  not  hold  you  morally 
culpable,  for  your  education,  surroundings,  knowledge, 
and  training  make  your  adhering  to  these  doctrines 
excusable,  and  even  right.  Let  us  examine,  compare, 
and  investigate  the  matter  together,  and  we  shall  dis- 
cover the  precious  pearl  of  religious  peace  and  Church 
unity,  and  then  join  our  hands  and  forces  in  cleansing 
and  cultivating  the  garden  of  the  Lord,  which  is  over- 
grown with  weeds.” 

The  doctrine  of  conversion  and  justification  is  still 
regarded  in  many  quarters  as  the  most  important  point 
of  difference.  It  was,  men  say,  the  turning-point  of  the 
German  Eeformation,  its  fairest  jewel  and  speciality, 
the  article  of  a standing  or  falling  Church.  The  words 
of  the  Elector  of  Brandenberg  are  often  cited,  who 
impressed  above  all  on  the  consciences  of  his  theolo- 
gians, when  setting  off  for  a conference  with  their 


Difficulties  and  Grounds  of  Hope.  155 

opponents,  to  bring  back  with  them  the  little  word 
“ sola,”  i.e.  the  doctrine  that  man  is  justified  by  faith 
“ alone.”  And  in  fact  this  doctrine  formed  the  prin- 
cipal subject  of  the  public  discussions  at  diets  and 

* 

religious  conferences,  as  at  Eatisbon  in  1541  and  1546. 
But  I must  confess,  at  the  risk  of  manifold  contradictions, 
that  this  is  just  the  point  where  reconciliation  seems  to 
me  most  easily  attainable.  On  one  side  are  ranged  the 
whole  Western  Catholic  Church,  the  whole  Greek  and 
Eussian  Church,  and  the  greater  part  of  the  Anglican 
Church ; all  these  adhere  to  the  ancient  doctrine. 
The  Protestant  doctrine,  as  it  is  most  clearly  taught  in 
the  two  Formularies  of  Concord  and  the  Catechism  of 
Heidelberg,  is  no  doubt  absolutely  irreconcilable  with 
the  doctrine  of  the  other  Churches.  The  contradiction 
is  so  glaring  and  decisive,  that,  were  the  Protestant 
doctrine  adhered  to,  all  hope  of  reunion  must  be  given 
up.  But  happily  this  is  not  the  case ; the  overwhelming 
majority  of  German  Protestant  divines,  and  especially 
those  who  make  Scripture  exegesis  their  speciality,  only 
differ  in  their  manner  of  expression,  and  not  in  sub- 
stance, from  the  ancient  doctrine.^ 

1 [See,  for  some  illustrations  of  this,  my  Catholic  Doctrine  of  the  Atone- 
ment, pp.  281-284.] 


156  Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

The  celibacy  of  the  clergy  can  form  no  ground  of 
separation,  for  this  reason,  if  for  no  other,  that  even 
the  Eoman  Church  does  not  regard  it  as  a divine  law, 
but  only  as  an  ecclesiastical  ordinance,  and  does  not 
therefore  hesitate  to  hold  communion  with  the  married 
clergy  of  the  Eastern  Church.  And,  on  the  other  hand, 
Protestants,  remembering  certain  exhortations  of  St. 
Paul,  ought  to  allow  that  it  well  befits  the  Church  to 
have  a class  of  ministers  who  voluntarily  renounce 
family  life,  in  order  to  devote  themselves  exclusively  to 
the  service  of  the  flock,  and  to  offer  to  that  body  of 
the  laity  who,  in  these  days,  are  compelled  by  poverty 
or  their  station  in  life  to  remain  unmarried,  an  example 
of  continence  which  might  else  be  represented  as  im- 
possible. 

So  again  with  communion  in  both  kinds.  The 
withdrawal  of  the  chalice  in  Western  Christendom  has 
caused  unspeakable  mischief,  and  led  to  divisions  and 
wars ; nor  have  I been  able  to  discover  any  important 
benefit  resulting  from  it.  The  whole  Eastern  and 
Eussian  Church,  Uniate  as  weE  as  Orthodox,  adminis- 
ters communion  under  both  species  ; and  at  all  events 
those  Churches  which  are  willing  to  iinite  ought  not 
to  be  rejected  on  that  account. 


Difficulties  and  Grounds  of  Hope.  157 

As  regards  the  doctrine  of  the  intermediate  state,  it 
is  clear  how  both  Churches  might  gain  by  comparing 
and  coming  to  an  understanding  on  their  points  of 
difference.  Protestant  theologians  complain  that  the 
popular  notion  of  two  states  only  after  death — heaven 
and  hell,  immediate  beatitude  or  damnation, — and  the 
consequent  disuse  of  prayer  for  the  departed,  “has 
brought  the  people  to  the  brink  of  doubt  about  eternal 
life  altogether.”^  They  acknowledge  that  belief  in  an 
intermediate  state  of  cleansing  ought  to  be  received,  and 
prayer  for  the  dead  recommended,  even  for  the  sake  of 
the  living,  and  indeed  ought  to  be  formally  reintroduced.^ 
On  the  other  hand,  the  Latin  Church,  by  uniting  with 
the  Eastern,  has  allowed  the  scholastic  opinion  of  a 
material  fire  in  Purgatory  as  the  means  of  chastisement 
to  drop ; ® and  the  substance  of  the  doctrine  can  cause 
no  further  offence,  if  once  the  gross  abuses  and  mis- 
apprehensions are  removed,  which  have  incrusted  its 
kernel  in  practice  and  popular  belief. 

1 Neumami  in  the  Zeitschrift  fur  luther.  Theologie,  1852,  p.  282. 

* So  Karsten  and  F.  W.  Schulze.  [The  testimony  of  two  other  eminent 
Lutheran  divines,  Martensen  and  Rothe,  are  cited  to  the  same  effect  in  my 
Catholic  Doctrine  of  the  Atonement  (2d  ed.,  W.  H.  Allen),  pp.  282,  284, 
and  the  list  might  easily  be  enlarged.  For  a catena  of  Anglican  authorities 
in  favour  of  prayer  for  the  dead — which  might  be  indefinitely  lengthened 
by  reference  to  living  writers — see  ch.  xi.  of  Christiom  Doctrine  of  Prayer 
for  the  Departed,  by  Rev.  F.  G.  Lee.  Strahan,  1872.] 

3 [Cf.  supra,  p.  51.] 


158  Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

As  regards  confession,  it  is  enougli  to  remember  that 
the  need  for  some  institution  securing  to  the  clergyman 
the  opportunity  of  acting  directly  on  the  conscience  of 
the  individual  Christian  is  keenly  felt  in  every  Church. 
In  the  Anglican  Church,  confession,  in  the  strict  sense 
of  the  word,  has  been  largely  practised  for  some  years. 
In  the  German  Protestant  Church,  as  far  as  I can 
gather  from  its  literature,  there  is  a very  widely  spread 
desire  to  replace  the  general  confession,  which  has  be- 
come unmeaning  and  mechanical,  by  something  much 
more  like  the  Catholic  form. 

Then  again,  the  Sacrifice  of  the  Eucharist,  and  the 
necessity  or  fitness  of  making  it  the  centre  of  public 
worship,  as  in  the  ancient  Churches,  has  in  our  day 
found  zealous  advocates  among  German  Protestant 
theologians.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Catholic  theo- 
logians will  not  deny  that  the  use  of  the  living  and 
universally  understood  language  of  the  people  is 
preferable  to  the  dead  Latin,  which  only  fosters  the 
popular  fancy  of  some  occult  sacredness  and  magical 
power  residing  in  unintelligible  forms.^ 

Among  the  points  in  which  the  Churches  have  come 

1 [In  the  North  of  Germany  it  is  very  common  at  High  Mass  to  sing 
vernacular  paraphrases  of  the  Kyrie,  Gloria,  Credo,  etc.,  in  which  the 
people  join,  instead  of  the  Latin  ; and  authorized  forms  are  published 
for  this  purpose  in  many  dioceses.] 


Difficulties  and  Grounds  of  Hope.  159 

nearer  than  before  must  be  reckoned  the  monastic  insti- 
tute. It  is  allowed  by  Protestants  that  “ only  by  such 
corporations  can  the  wants  be  satisfied,  which  always 
make  themselves  imperatively  felt  in  the  Christian 
community  and  in  fact  the  Protestant  deaconesses 
correspond  to  the  Sisters  of  Mercy  in  the  Catholic 
Church.^  And  we  may  recognise  an  unmistakeable 
approximation  and  removal  of  old  causes  of  offence  in 
the  circumstance  that  in  the  Catholic  Church  the 
female  orders  and  convents,  designed  exclusively  for  a 
life  of  prayer  and  contemplation  without  active  work, 
have  disappeared,  or  are  in  course  of  disappearing ; while 
the  communities  devoted  to  the  bodily  and  spiritual 
good  of  others,  the  care  of  the  sick  and  education, 
display  a power  and  activity  hitherto  unknown. 

We  must  make  up  our  minds  to  encountering 
numberless  adversaries.  Three  classes  especially  will 
set  themselves  to  oppose  our  eirenic  efforts, — the  first 
numerous  and  powerful  in  England  and  America,  the 
second  in  Germany,  the  third  everywhere.  Eirst 
come  aU  those  who  recognise  in  the  Pope  the  fulfil- 

^ Kothe’s  Ethik,  vol.  iii.  p.  424. 

® [The  Calendar  of  the  English  Church  for  1872  gives  between  forty  and 
fifty  Anglican  sisterhoods  or  convents,  discharging  various  works  of  mercy, 
corporal  and  spiritual ; some  of  them  having  several  daughter  houses  in 
different  localities.] 


i6o  Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

ment  of  the  scriptural  prophecies  about  the  great  enemy 
of  Christ  and  the  Apostasy,  and  consequently  think  no 
further  reformation  of  the  papal  Church  possible,  but 
look  for  its  judgment  and  destruction.  Secondly,  there 
are  those  theologians  to  whom  the  ancient  doctrines 
common  to  all  Christian  Churches  are  already  a burden 
and  offence,  of  which  they  are  anxious  to  rid  them- 
selves. The  third  hostile  army,  and  its  name  is 
legion,  consists  of  those  encamped  under  the  papal  and 
Jesuit  banner.  That  no  stone  will  be  left  unturned  by 
that  party  to  hinder  every  approximation,  and  strangle 
at  its  birth  every  idea  of  peace,  is  certain.  The  Vatican 
Council  was  organized  for  the  express  purpose  of  making 
all  plans  of  reunion  for  ever  impossible.  Individual 
conversions,  indeed,  are  gladly  welcomed ; they  are 
drops  at  once  absorbed  and  lost  in  the  ocean  of  Eoman 
uniformity.  But  there  is  to  be  no  negotiation  on  a 
larger  scale,  for  bodies  of  men  meeting  on  equal  terms. 
Some  years  ago  a society  was  formed  in  England  of 
Anglicans  and  Catholics  combined  for  the  common 
furtherance  of  the  union  of  the  Christian  Churches, 
and  it  was  condemned  by  the  Pope,  at  the  instance 
of  Ar  chbishop  Manning.^ 

1 [The  “ Association  for  the  Promotion  of  the  Unity  of  Christendom  ” by 


Dijficulties  and  Grounds  of  Hope.  i6r 

At  the  beginning,  then,  of  any  eirenic  movement,  its 
opponents  will  outnumber  its  friends  and  helpers.  But 
we  may  count  on  the  sympathy,  if  not  the  active  help, 
of  those  who  have  at  heart  the  greatness  and  unity  of 
Germany,  and  who  believe  that  the  political  union  is  but 
half  the  work  and  requires  an  ecclesiastical  union  of  all 
its  tribes  as  the  completion,  fulfilment,  and  crowning  of 
the  edifice.  In  Germany  the  two  religions  are  con- 
stantly becoming  more  intermingled,  and  the  artificial 
devices  for  keeping  them  apart  are  more  and  more  felt 
to  be  disturbing  and  hindering  influences,  superseded  by 
the  movement  and  needs  of  the  present,  and  are  being 
gradually  put  aside.  It  seemed,  after  the  controversy  on 
the  subject  at  Cologne  in  1839  and  the  following  years, 
as  if  marriages  between  Catholics  and  Protestants  would 
become  more  infrequent,  but  they  have  increased  of 
late  years,  and  will  certainly  continue  to  increase.  And 
these  multiplying  marriages  and  famdies  of  mixed 


intercessory  prayer,  founded  Sept.  8,  1857,  and  condemned  by  a decree  of 
the  Roman  Inquisition,  Sept.  16,  1864,  first  published  in  England  by 
Archbishop  Manning,  shortly  after  his  appointment  to  the  See  of  West- 
minster, in  a Pastoral  dated  Epiphany  1866.  The  official  report,  published 
by  the  Secretary  of  the  Association  in  Sept.  1868,  gives  the  total  number 
of  members  as  12,684,  including  “ Roman  Catholics,  1881 ; Orientals, 
685  ; members  of  miscellaneous  Protestant  communities,  92 ; of  Church  of 
England,  10,026.” — See  Union  Review,  vol.  vii.  p.  74.] 


L 


1 62  Reunion  of  the  Churches. 

religion  are  already  paving  the  way  for  the  fusion  of 
the  Churches,  and  encourage  us  not  to  lose  heart.  The 
mixture  and  interpenetration  of  the  adherents  of  the 
two  confessions  advances  unchecked.  There  are  no 
longer  any  towns,  and  there  will  in  time  he  no  villages, 
where  Catholics  and  Protestants  are  not  dwelling 
side  by  side.  But  that  mutual  tolerance  and  respect 
which  depends  on  the  forms  of  refined  social  intercourse 
is  confined  to  the  higher  and  educated  classes.  Among 
the  lower  classes  and  the  country  population  the 
intermixture  of  confessions  must  either  lead  to  a coarse 
unbelieving  indifferentism,  or  beget  the  desire  and 
need  for  a Church  union,  which  may  put  an  end  to 
those  interminable  religious  troubles,  frictions,  and 
asperities. 

I have  found  it  the  almost  universal  conviction  in 
foreign  countries  that  it  is  the  special  mission  of 
Germany  to  take  the  lead  in  this  world-wide  question, 
and  give  to  the  movement  its  form,  measure,  and 
direction.  We  are  the  heart  of  Europe,  richer  in 
theologians  than  all  other  lands ; and  the  linguistic 
knowledge  indispensable  for  this  task  exists  with  us 
in  a higher  degree  than  anywhere  else.  What  can, 
what  ought  to  be  done  ? A negotiation  between  the 


Diffiadties  and  Grounds  of  Hope.  163 

Churches  through  plenipotentiaries  accredited  on  either 
side  promises  no  result ; the  mere  proposal  or  attempt 
would  now,  after  Jvdy  18,  1870,  be  a folly.  The  right 
instruments  would  be  found  in  men,  both  of  the  clergy 
and  laity,  who  would  unite  for  common  action,  first  in 
Germany,  untrammelled  by  instructions,  and  simply 
following  their  own  mind  and  judgment.  They  would 
soon  draw  others  to  them  in  rapidly  increasing 
numbers,  by  the  magnetic  power  of  a work  so  pure  and 
pleasing  to  God,  and  would  thus  be  brought  into  com- 
munication with  hke-minded  men  in  other  countries. 
The  basis  of  their  consultations  would  be  Holy  Scrip- 
ture, with  the  three  oecumenical  Creeds,  interpreted 
by  the  stdl  undivided  Church  of  the  early  centuries. 
Thus  would  an  international  society  of  the  noblest  and 
most  beneficial  kind  be  formed,  and  what  began  as  a 
snowball  might  well  become  an  irresistible  avalanche. 
There  would  be  no  lack  of  cold  contempt  or  furious 
hostility  to  the  work ; but  they  would  fail  to  over- 
throw it. 

A Prussian  official,  who  had  long  been  concerned 
with  the  ecclesiastical  affairs  of  both  Confessions,  wrote 
thus  at  the  end  of  his  public  career  in  1857  : — “ I am 
certain  the  time  will  come,  before  the  newly  inserted 


164  Reunion  of  the  Chw'ches. 

stones  are  mouldered,  when  a common  Te  Deum  will 
he  sung  in  the  cathedral  of  Cologne.”  ^ 

In  this  belief  and  hope  I desire  to  live  and  die. 
Nor  could  I wish  for  any  better  success  and  reward  of 
my  Lectures  than  this ; that  my  hearers  should  make 
a like  hope  part  of  their  life,  carry  it  into  their  dealings 
with  members  of  other  communions,  and,  wherever  an 
opportunity  occurs  of  bearing  witness  to  it,  not  remain 
cold  and  dumb.  We  Germans  have  lived  to  see  days 
of  serious  import  and  joyful  triumph, — -days  of 
victory  and  of  national  unity  at  length  attained ; and 
I trust  that  our  people  will  remain  strong  enough  and 
moral  enough  to  maintain  the  lofty  position  divine 
Providence  has  assigned  to  them.  But  these  days  of 
triumph  have  had  to  he  dearly  bought  with  terrible 
sacrifices,  and  at  the  cost  of  rivers  of  human  blood. 
Here,  in  the  sphere  of  religion  and  in  the  effort  for 
religious  peace,  a fairer  crown  and  bloodless  victory 
awaits  the  German  people, — more  difficult  indeed  to 
win  than  that  victory  over  France,  for  it  is  the  con- 
quest of  ourselves,  our  indolence,  our  pride,  our  selfish- 
ness, our  prejudices,  our  easy  self-conceit.  But  if  we 
are  willincf  to  march  to  this  contest,  we  march  under  a 

1 Eilei's,  Meine  Wanderang  durch  Lehen  (Leipsic,  1857),  vol.  ii.  p.  265. 


Difjiailties  and  Groitnds  of  Hope.  165 

Leader  whose  name  may  inspire  the  most  faint- 
hearted with  courage.  It  is  He  from  whom  descends 
every  good  and  perfect  gift,  whose  word  is  not  yet 
fulfilled,  hut  must  he  fulfilled  in  time  to  come  : “ There 
shall  be  one  fold  and  one  Shepherd.” 


PRINTED  BY  T.  AND  A.  CONSTABLE,  PRINTERS  TO  HER  MAJESTY, 
AT  THE  EDINBURGH  UNIVERSITY  PRESS, 


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